By Martin Saxon

Many commentators have described the north-west regional team – whether they have been known as Lancashire Thunder, Thunder or Manchester Originals – as the perennial underachievers of the regional era that began in 2016 with the launch of the Super League.

Two days stand out as low points – a supposedly showpiece evening TV game at Old Trafford in 2019 where only a few hundred supporters turned out, and a ‘Roses’ game in 2021 where Thunder limped to 90 in the full 20 overs. A study conducted for this site last year also exposed the number of players in the Thunder team who were making a ‘low impact’.

The match against Diamonds where Thunder made just 90 was supposedly from the regional era, yet almost all of that day’s eleven hailed from Lancashire, even with most of that year’s home matches being played at grounds in Cheshire.

The ironic thing is that, with the team free to call themselves Lancashire this year, and with the regional era supposedly consigned to history, last Monday’s win in the final of the Vitality County Cup owed a great debt to the north-west region as a whole.

Of the eleven Lancashire players in the final, four are products of Cheshire’s county system: Sophie Ecclestone, Sophie Morris, Tilly Kesteven and Seren Smale. Grace Potts has played in the Cheshire Women’s League, while a sixth member of the team, Emma Lamb, has played a great deal of cricket in the Cheshire men’s leagues.

Morris is perhaps the breakthrough player of the year at Old Trafford, while Kesteven chose the perfect moment to make her first significant score of her professional career, making 77 from 60 deliveries in the final.

Of the Lancashire squad not involved in the final, Hannah Jones, Eve Jones, Danielle Collins and Olivia Bell are all no strangers to anyone who has followed women’s club cricket in Cheshire in recent years.

From a personal point of view, the question is, how much can I celebrate Lancashire Women’s newfound success? I was born and bred ten miles from Old Trafford and was introduced to supporting the Red Rose men’s team by my father at an early age. The fact that I’ve always lived ‘south of the river’ in Cheshire is not really an issue here, with Cheshire forever destined to be a minor county in the men’s game.

I was, however, heavily involved in the administration of the Cheshire women’s team between 2007 and 2013. In these heady times, Cheshire and Lancashire were actually rivals, indeed Cheshire won both of their 2009 matches against Lancashire by a significant margin. In 2011, Lancashire were back on the rise, but still only beat Cheshire by one run, and there was another closely fought match between the counties in 2012.

So, after all those years of seeing Lancashire as a deadly rival, can I now reconcile myself to supporting the county’s women’s team and celebrating their successes? I think I’ve decided that the answer is most definitely Yes. The number of players in the team with Cheshire connections makes my decision much easier for sure. Many observers have voiced the opinion that Cheshire still does women’s club cricket much better than Lancashire, and I have no doubt that the strength of the club game in Cheshire will continue to provide Lancashire with a steady supply of talented players for many years to come.

One also has to accept the fact that the women’s cricket scene continues to evolve rapidly. Lancashire are destined to be a Tier 1 county in perpetuity, while current indications are that Cheshire, and all of the other traditional ‘minor’ counties, cannot aspire to anything other than Tier 3. (Although it will be interesting to see if Tier 2 really does operate with just six teams once Tier 1 has expanded to 12 counties in 2029.)

While the smaller counties may no longer be able to aspire to reach the highest level, it must be considered that no one ever suggests that the Cheshire men’s team is not a viable proposition simply because it can’t be promoted to the main County Championship. Likewise, few cricket followers in the county see any issue at all with supporting both the Cheshire and Lancashire men’s teams.

In summary, the new era of county women’s cricket is something we have to accept as a necessary evil, so I see no conflict between celebrating what Lancashire Women have achieved, while also wishing the newly relaunched Cheshire Women every success.