TWO of Lancashire’s finest homegrown cricketers will be inducted into the Lancashire Cricket Hall of Fame at a special ceremony later this year.

Clayton-le-Moors-born Jack Simmons, 78, will join Blackburn sportsman A N Hornby as inaugural inductees into the Lancashire Cricket Hall of Fame, alongside other Red Rose legends, Cyril Washbrook, Brian Statham, Jack Bond, Farokh Engineer and Sir Clive Lloyd.

An exclusive dinner, to celebrate the first seven players to be inducted into the Lancashire Cricket Hall of Fame, will be held in the 1864 Suite at Emirates Old Trafford on Thursday, February 20.

Inductees will receive a special Lancashire Cricket Hall of Fame cap at the dinner, with a commemorative booklet produced each year to recognise the latest inductees. Further inductees will be selected each year, and all those honoured will be displayed in the new museum area at Emirates Old Trafford – which forms part of the stadium’s upcoming redevelopment.

A late arrival in county cricket at the age of 28, Simmons enjoyed a 20-year career in which he was an integral part of the Lancashire side. His flat bowling trajectory and his accuracy meant that he could be economical in one-day cricket, and he was part of the highly successful Lancashire one-day side. In first-class cricket, Simmons reliably contributed more than 500 runs and 50 wickets in most seasons and at the age of 47, he took 63 wickets in the 1988 season.

Born in 1847, Albert Neilson Hornby, was one of the best-known sportsmen in England during the 19th century, excelling in both rugby and cricket and playing football for Blackburn Rovers. He was the first of only two men to captain the country at rugby and cricket but is also remembered as the England cricket captain whose side lost the Test match which gave rise to the Ashes.