Stephen Croft

[Admin]

Retired from all forms of the game

[oldhamexile]

Incredible to have a 20 year career in this era. His name will go down in the annals of Lancashire CCC history as a part of the championship winning team and he'll be remembered as a very fine white ball cricketer. At his very best he would have walked into any team in the country in limited over cricket.

[John W]

Last of a dying breed. He played in an era when the county badge was the ultimate honour.

[Rob]

Sept 25, 2024 13:40:11 GMT John W said:

Last of a dying breed. He played in an era when the county badge was the ultimate honour.Not quite- I would put Tom Bailey in that bracket as well.

[John W]

Sept 25, 2024 14:00:01 GMT Rob said:

Sept 25, 2024 13:40:11 GMT John W said:

Last of a dying breed. He played in an era when the county badge was the ultimate honour.Not quite- I would put Tom Bailey in that bracket as well.

I think you get my gist Rob.

[redandrosy]

Superb servant to the club. Hit the wining runs as we won the championship. Who will be the next to say that?

Some great memories of contributions with the bat but also in the field and with the ball.

Thanks for everything. Happy retirement!

[sillypoint]

Made the most of his abilities, so great credit to him.

I must confess that I wanted him to be released when Karl Brown was released. I was wrong.

Could never hack it batting in the top 4 in the Championship but was a very reliable 5 or 6 and kept on improving in white ball cricket and was a great man in a crisis, I recall in one of his very first one day matches he hit a six to win us a very tight match.

Great fielder as well. His run out of James Vince one day at OT remains one of the best bits of fielding I've ever seen.

Scored a ton for Lytham a couple of weeks ago, so maybe he'll continue to play league cricket.

[lancsdes]

Sept 26, 2024 9:29:45 GMT sillypoint said:

“Great fielder as well. His run out of James Vince one day at OT remains one of the best bits of fielding I've ever seen.

Scored a ton for Lytham a couple of weeks ago, so maybe he'll continue to play league cricket.”


Superb gully catch to dismiss stubborn Yorks number 11 ( they always are) off Jimmy in 2011 at Aigburth which produced the very exciting run chase that followed. The catch was a  championship winner  . 

I thought about mentioning that Lytham hundred ; was division one but wouldn’t be surprised if he gets offers from Prem clubs. 

[MarkG]

Agree with all the above. I remember 2016, when he became club captain and had to be the main run scorer in a threadbare team that promptly got poorer at the end of May as we packed off Neil Wagner who’d had an excellent 6 weeks with us as Jimmy disappeared off to join up with England. Jos Buttler got injured at the end of the IPL so didn’t come back to us (my how things change!) and Alex Davies then got a bad injury so, given we had no keeper and the club was too parsimonious to bring one in for months, Crofty took the gauntlets for a number of games. Predictably results worsened and and his runs dried up, but it struck me as typically Crofty, cheerfully taking on whatever the club asked him to, regardless of whether it was good for him or not.

Of course he got no thanks from the club, dumping him from the captaincy after two seasons for Liam Livingstone (who had been protected in his first season in 2016 by acclimatising at number 7 whilst Crofty batted at 5) and we all remember how well that worked out.

And - of course - Crofty got on with it, and despite it appearing he was being gradually marginalised he remained too important to get rid of and just two years ago had a real Indian Summer first class season.

I’m glad he’s staying with the club as a coach as he seems an all round good bloke and a genuine man of Lancashire cricket. I’m also a bit anxious about it too, as he’s just the sort of uncomplaining, make the best of it good egg who will carry the can for higher up errors - as he has done before.

Anyway, happy trails, Crofty. Thank you for it all.