It’s the second snowfall of winter, and Lowerhouse Cricket Club and the surrounding Lancashire hills are decked in white frosting. An unfriendly wind zips across the ground, where Stan Heaton – cricket chairman, child welfare officer, bar supervisor, groundsman and more – has opened up the clubhouse, much as he does nearly every other day of the year. He has just taken a booking from a woman who wants to run a pilates class and is reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the weather means he can’t get out his chainsaw for a spot of maintenance.
Lowerhouse CC was formed in 1862 and became a founder member of the Lancashire league. A former mill village, only two and a half miles west of Burnley centre, Lowerhouse sits in an area of high deprivation. The local MP is Anthony Higginbotham, part of the “red wall” Tory intake of 2019, and the first Conservative MP to be elected in the constituency for 109 years.
