THE sun is shining and the first overs have been sent down for the start of a new cricket season.

Bowlers, batters, boundaries and leg befores will once again be the language of the local sporting scene.

Today we take to the field to look back at some of East Lancashire's cricketing sportsmen from years past.

Lancashire Cricket League was formed 1892 and was one of a sudden arrival of leagues throughout the county.

The Football League had set a trend in the 1888?89 season and also had its heart in Lancashire, and with professionals and regular friendlies and local derbies, the leagues quickly became very popular institutions, with games played at weekends when working people had rare leisure time.

In its first season the Lancashire League consisted of only 13 clubs, before Todmorden joined in 1897 and membership has not changed since.

One member is East Lancashire Cricket Club which has won the league 14 time and the Worsley Cup competition 18 times - more than any other club.

The highest score in the cup was 396 against Accrington in 1923.

Formed at a meeting held at The Bull Hotel in 1833, Burnley CC celebrated its 180th anniversary of playing cricket in 2014.

The club he club moved to its present location at Turf moor in 1843, after playing in different locations around Burnley.

These included Healey Heights, a meadow where the Albion Inn stood, then to Greenhalgh’s Gardens near the old Gas Works.

There were only around 10 matches a season in these early years.

For some reason, Burnley played its home games at Duke Bar in 1845, before returning to The Turf two years later.

At the 1846 annual general meeting held in the December, membership was set at 10s - and members only were allowed to play, only if fully paid by April 1 and after being proposed by four other members of the committee.

The club's first pavilion was made of canvas, painted with the words 'Burnley Cricket Club 1844' and after each game all parties 'retired to The Bull, for a beefsteak supper at 8 o’clock precisely'.

Nelson Cricket Club was formed in 1861 when two other local clubs merged.

It was a founding member of the Lancashire League in 1892 and won the inaugural championship.

Since then it has won the league 21 times - more than any other club, being aided in the bid by top professionals such as Learie Constantine, Kapil Dev and Steve Waugh.

Rishton CC was formed in 1865 and some of the most prominent cricketers have been signed as professionals through the years, including Viv Richards and Allan Donald.

It is thought that the first cricket match played in Rishton was played on a freezing February day in 18848, when the players used the frozen surface of the reservoir as their pitch.

In 1955, Rishton completed the league and cup double, professional bowler Subhash Gupte taking a total of 166 wickets, including all 10 in the cup final against Todmorden, whose professional H Dansie was the only one to stand up to his right arm leg breaks with an unbeaten 121.