LIVERPOOL LOOKING TO BURNS TO FIRE THEM UP IN 2017

Date: 23rd January 2017

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Another busy schedule for the Aigburth Club.

Liverpool officials are hoping that new signing Jackson Burns will help them win promotion to the First Division of the Liverpool Competition in 2017 and cast off the “sleeping giant” tag that has dogged them for a couple of seasons.

Left-arm seamer Burns took 34 wickets at 15.35 runs apiece to help Southport and Birkdale win promotion to the ECB Premier League last summer and acting chairman, Jeremy Clein, believes that the Australian can accelerate the revival of the Aigburth club.

“We really did without an overseas player last year but we spoke to Jackson before Christmas and the signing was completed over the holiday period,” he said.

“Our other aim is to get consistency of availability and I’m fairly confident that seven or eight cricketers will play 20 or more games next season, and that will be a major bonus for us.”

Any recovery will begin in 2017 with promotion from the league’s third tier, to which Liverpool were relegated in 2015, and Clein’s optimism is also sustained by the club’s link with Liverpool University cricket.

“We have the university captain, Henry Charlton, signed up for the whole season and we have a very good relationship with the student cricket,” he said. “The university lads we have brought through have loved it here.

“But we also have a very good youth section and we are quietly optimistic about our fortunes for the coming season.”

At one stage it seemed possible that first-class cricket would also be returning to Aigburth in 2017 but Lancashire’s plans to play a four-day game clashed with the prestigious tennis tournament which is now held at the club in June. Liverpool will now be hosting a Royal London One-Day Cup match against Northamptonshire on May 5

“I think Lancashire are keen to come back to Liverpool but it’s just a question of the direction in which our club wants to go,” said Clein.

“We are a multi-sport club and the date for the tennis had been fixed. We also have weddings in the marquee which are often booked 18 months in advance and we can’t just tell the people who have put a deposit down that they have to go somewhere else. We’d like to have more county matches but they have to be at a time which fits in with the running of a multi-sports club.

“There are, though, Lancashire second team games scheduled and also a Lancashire Thunder girls’ match pencilled in.”