MCBA History
1987-2017
In
April 1987 the NWCBA split into three separate counties, Manchester,
Lancashire
and Merseyside & Cheshire. The main
purpose of this was to provide the top players with more opportunities
to play
for their county in events such as the Tollemache, Pachabo and Corwen. This
has been successful in that many players have played in these events
who
otherwise would not have competed. Over
the thirty years Manchester has won the Pachabo once, whereas in the
previous
thirty years the North West won the Pachabo once, but that was with a
team of
Manchester players. In the Tollemache,
the sole North West win in the last thirty years was by Merseyside,
whereas the
North West won it three times in the thirty years previous to that. The Corwen Trophy has only been running since
1980 and was won by Manchester pairs in 1980 and 1991.
The Northern Counties League was established in 2006, which has provided a great opportunity for many players to represent their counties at three different levels ever since. Manchester have dominated the A Division, but honours have been spread more evenly among the counties in the B and C divisions. International Successes Highlights have been wins in the Womens European for Rhona Goldenfield and Michelle Brunner and in the World Seniors (twice) and European Seniors for John Holland. Many juniors have played in international events notably Michael Byrne and Mike Bell. John
Holland, John Hassett, Jeff Morris and Bill Hirst have also played for
Senior
teams. National
Successes
Many other national events, too numerous to list, have been won by Manchester players, with John Holland, Michelle Brunner and Michael Byrne featuring a lot on the National Honours page of the web site. County Events The
great success story of the last thirty years was the introduction of
the
congress, held in the city centre annually in January since 2000,
attracting
players from all over the country. Numbers
of entrants have held up well for county events
since then
(apart from the league and Higson Cup which have dwindled somewhat). The league was dominated by Michelle
Brunner’s Isolated Menaces team with twelve wins until her death in
2011. Recently Michael Byrne’s St Titus
team have
been the most consistent winners. The
Higson Cup was also won twelve times by Michelle Brunner and team mates.
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