Lancashire Spin Magazine Autumn 2023

and women’s sides. Glen
Chapple will go down
as a legend of this great
Club, for both his on-field
performances for over 20
years taking over 1,300
wickets across all formats
for the Red Rose, whilst he’s
overseen seven years as
a coach. Meanwhile, Paul
Shaw contributed across
a much shorter period of
time, but has had a huge
impact on the development
of our young Lancashire
Thunder squad over the
last three years. A fantastic
coach and leader, he has
helped put in place strong
foundations for the years to
come. We wish them both
all the best in the next stage
of their respective careers.
We are proud to have
seen 19 Lancashire players
represent England at all
levels this year. At times it
can be frustrating (for both
the Club and Members)
when you lose key players
to international cricket,
but it is also one our key
objectives, to produce
homegrown players that
develop with us and
become good enough to
go on and play for England.
It is testament to the great
work which is being done
from our County Age Group
pathway and Academy
system right the way up
to First Team level, across
both men’s and women’s
cricket, and whilst naturally
we want to see our players
wearing the Red Rose
as often as possible,
it gives us great pride
to see our homegrown
players performing on
the international stage.
This year, we were once
again honoured to host
a men’s Ashes Test at
Emirates Old Trafford in July.
The first three/four days
were probably the best
days of Test Match cricket
I’ve witnessed at the venue
during the last decade.
The atmosphere around
the ground, the cricket
itself and the spectacle
of the Ashes was quite
extraordinary. Unfortunately,
we saw most of Day Four
washed out and then a
complete abandonment
on Day Five, both of which
were tough to take after
all the hard work that went
into delivering a five-day
Test Match. Whilst the Club
generated record revenues
from the Ashes, the last
two days have significantly
challenged us, given the
refunds that were made to
ticket and hospitality buyers
and all of the associated
costs involved in staging
international cricket.
During the Ashes, we were
thrilled to open the Edge
restaurant, Jimmy’s Bar and
the Sportsbreaks Terrace,
which were initially used
for corporate hospitality
during the Ashes Test and
then used by Members
for the first time a week
later - during the Northants
County Championship
fixture. October then
saw the opening of the
new Hilton Garden Inn
100-bedroom extension.
The New Development,
which completes the
£75m redevelopment of
Emirates Old Trafford, was
the culmination of our
diversification strategy to
create Club owned assets
where all profits returned
go directly back into cricket.
The New Development was
certainly one of the more
challenging projects that
I’ve been involved in over
the years, and I would like
to thank the ECB, Trafford
Council, Metro Bank, Hilton,
Sportsbreaks and Corinthian
for their continued support,
as well as the North-West
based Eric Wright Group
– our construction partner
- who have delivered a
fantastic final product.
Throughout this year,
we have also seen
incredible support from
our commercial partners.
Commercial partnership
revenue is the highest it’s
ever been – which is a
fantastic achievement by
the team here – and has
also seen us celebrate the
10th year of our partnership
with headline partner
Emirates. We’ve also seen