We visit Wigan where the Second XI have been promoted
Andrew Lawton finds a club where the seconds are setting a trend the firsts are desperate to follow
Wigan Second XI laid down a serious marker for the first team in September 2016, when they clinched promotion from the Liverpool and District First Division back into the top flight.
And the ambitious folk at the Lancashire club are desperate to have their leading lights promoted as soon as possible to follow them to the parallel league.
While the Wigan seconds were busy racking up 222-1dec in that final game with Orrell Red Triangle, the first team saw Derbyshire’s Matthew Critchley score 110 off 91 balls with the second-highest scorer Jake Leyland making 41.
Critchley, who scored one century and one 50 in three innings at Wigan in 2016, signed a contract extension with his county as the summer came to a close.
It means that Wigan may not be able to call upon his services much this coming summer but club member Aidan Miners is confident that the first team can soon replicate the achievements of their club-mates.
He said: “We have quite a young squad. We want to try and grow the club and we are in a good position to do that after the seconds got promoted last season.
“The firsts have been trying to get into the top flight for a while – they have been in the Liverpool & District First Division for 14 years.
“The second team, after six years out, have gone back up. Last time we were in the Premier Division, of the 31 players we used only three remain with the club, that’s how big the turnover has been.
“I think we would like to have ones and twos in the Premier Division playing at the top level of club cricket again.
“We would like to think we have more people representing counties, too. We have quite a few at Lancashire age-groups.”
The second XI are not forgotten at Wigan and Miners believes that the opportunities given to the young players at the club through that side are very important. Those opportunities have helped talented young players, from inside and outside the club, get valuable game time and enabled them to push on to become cricketers of the future.
“People want to come and play with us. Harry Clegg, our young left-armer, was so far off playing first team cricket but the growth he’s had in the second team gives him the opportunity to shine,” he added.
“We have a strong junior section but people have joined them to get chances with senior cricket. We’ve a big community in Wigan to tap into.”
Wigan CC was formed in 1848 and in the 1870s cricketers began playing rugby league to keep fit during the winter, eventually helping to form a separate club.
The club has grown to become Wigan Warriors, who won their fourth Super League title in 2016 and face Aussies Cronulla Sharks in the World Club Challenge on Sunday, while Wigan Sports Club is now made up of squash, hockey and cricket teams.
Wigan Wheelers Cycling Club also base themselves at the club with the cricket club fielding four senior sides in the Liverpool and District League with junior sides running from U9s up to U19s.
Leading the first XI is Aaron Redmond, who was due to play for Wigan in 2008 before receiving a surprise call-up to the New Zealand Test team.
Redmond first played for Wigan in 2006 and, barring 2009 where he played just twice, has averaged in excess of 47 for the club in each of his 11 seasons since. The Kiwi scored 325 runs in his 16 Test innings between 2008 and 2013 at an average of 21.66 and also made six ODI appearances as well as seven T20Is.
He’s now approaching 8,000 runs for the Lancashire club, based at Bull Hey in the centre of Wigan. And, now married to his British wife, his home overlooks the ground.
“His impact is two-fold. He’s a class batter, all sides fear him and very few sides will choose to bat first and give us a gettable target with him in the team,” explained Miners.
“He scored an outstanding 100 to save us from relegation a few years ago. But he also mentored and did one-on-one coaching with Matthew Critchley and he’s grown into a first class cricketer – and he’s going to play at Derbyshire.”
In the 1870s cricketers began playing rugby to keep fit in winter, eventually helping to form a separate club