County cricket comes to Birkdale

Well, 2nd XI county cricket. Sadly the days when the first team played County Championship matches has gone. Unless my memory is playing tricks I remember Gladstone Small having been dropped from the test side turning up at the S&B for warwickshire in the early '80's.

Well that didn't take long, thank you for the emails drawing my attention to the following from the BBC's website:

'I heard recently that in 1982, the first incident of a substitute taking a wicket occurred. How did this come about?

When Gladstone Small was called up by an injury-stricken England team for the Edgbaston Test against Pakistan on the second morning of Warwickshire's Championship match against Lancashire at Southport, the TCCB playing conditions permitted a full substitute to replace him.
Thus, on 29 July 1982, David Brown became the first substitute to take a wicket in county cricket.'

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

100 years of women in local government

Sefton is playing its part in the celebration of 100 years in local government amongst the material produced is a booklet detailing examples of some of the women who led the way. The first women to serve on any public body in Southport was a Birkdale Liberal, Kate Ryley, way back in 1889. In those days there was a separate local authority in Birkdale and it had its own education board to oversee Board Schools set up by the 1870 Education Act. Unless my memory is faulty the Birkdale Primary School in Bury Rd was a Board School. Miss Ryley was appointed to the Birkdale Education Board in 1889 and when it was abolished she was appointed to Lancashire County Council Education Committee until she resigned in 1925.
Kate Ryley was an active the Women's Liberal Federation and in the movement for women's sufferage in the town being a prominent member of the local Women's Sufferage Society. Her list of activities promoting both women and education is impressive. I particularly liked her initiative to help teachers get access to the books they needed by starting the 'Pedagogue Library'. Following her parents example she was closely involved with the work begun by Josephine Butler who did so much to reform the law as it impacted on prostitutes and worked with the delightfully named Moral and Social Hygiene Association.