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A bit of Northern's history.
The Northern Club was founded in 1859 and was called The Northern Cricket Club until 1961.
The first Clubhouse was situated in Rawson Road in Seaforth
and although the predominate sport was cricket, bowls was also played and the ladies indulged in archery.
In 1879 the Club re-located its premises north of Haigh Road, Waterloo Park.
In that year the President presented a bell to the Club which is still used to this day in the main pavilion.
A lawn tennis court was added to the amenities and additional grass and cinder courts were added later.
In 1888 the total membership was 70 compared to around 1000 today.
In 1907 the grounds of the Club were sold to an unscrupulous builder
who offered to sell it back to the Club at an exorbitant price.
The search was on again for grounds the Club could call its own and the present site was eventually settled upon
while the Moor Park residential site was in its infancy.
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Left, the new clubhouse, circa 1914.
Below, as the club grounds matured through the mid 1900s.
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The Club has continued to thrive since then and has evolved into one of the best sporting clubs in the North West
offering splendid facilities in beautiful surroundings.
In the 1970’s, Waterloo Park Cricket Club merged into the Northern, and when their former ground was sold in 1989, it enabled our Moor Park home to be expanded with the acquisition of 9 acres of farming land that are now the back cricket pitches, and the addition of the synthetic hockey pitch and second bowling green. Ladies hockey came to Northern when Ormskirk Ladies Hockey Club, which had been founded in 1966, merged into the Northern in 1995.
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Johnny Briggs.
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Johnny Briggs played cricket for Northern in 1878 and 1879.
He debuted for Lancashire in 1879 aged just 16,
and went on to become the only player in the county's history to score over 10,000 runs and take over 1,000 wickets
(1,696 in all).
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Johnny played 33 tests matches for England, taking 118 wickets and scoring 815 runs.
In 1892, playing at the SCG in the 2nd test, Johnny completed only the third hat-trick in test match history,
to end Australia's second innings. His final dismissal arrived via a catch held by a certain W.G.Grace.
His test career was ended in 1899 by illness during the Headingley test match against Australia,
after suffering a fierce blow to the heart in a game leading up to the test.
He recovered to play for Lancashire in 1900, but his illness returned,
and he met with a premature and unfortunate death just 2 years later.
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Johnny Briggs was born in Nottinghamshire on 3rd October 1862, the son of James Briggs, also a professional cricketer.
His father became professional at Widnes in 1877, so when Johnny was not retained at the end of that season by Hornsea (near Hull, his first professional appointment from age 13) he relocated with his family to Lancashire.
At first, his father and brother Joe took Johnny to Anfield Cricket Club, where they all played in a sides match.
After finishing on the winning side, the club secretary offered father James the professional's job,
but was told that it was his son who was 'in want of the situation'.
The secretary told him that his son was too small and that they couldn't entertain him.
They then went to Northern, and the outcome was different.
Though James Briggs told his son not to accept less than 30 shillings a week, he accepted 28.
Johnny Briggs later talks of being snubbed by the Anfield club, but how happy he was to later make them pay for it.
He derived great pleasure from performing well against them, saying
'I took eight wickets and scored 70 odd runs, and in the return I took six wickets and made 47.
The secretary of Anfield and myself have had many a laugh and a talk about it.'
In 1878 Johnny averaged 24 with the bat, and took over 100 wickets at around 5 runs each,
and was retained by Northern for the 1879 season. But reports had reached Old Trafford,
and in May he was called up for his Lancashire debut at Trent Bridge, ironically against his native county.
Johnny speaks of being in his bedsit when his landlady brought him a telegram from Lancashire
in which they requested his services.
He was so excited and bolted off to the Northern club secretary Mr Molyneux,
to ask permission to play against Nottinghamshire.
He played 5 times for Lancashire that season, while continuing his duties at Northern between county matches and
hitting his top score of 80 against Birkenhead Park.
The following season, Johnny Briggs embarked upon a full-time career with Lancashire.
with thanks to Paul Mullarkey for his contribution to the above
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