Liverpool and District Cricket Competition
| Countries |
 United Kingdom
|
|---|---|
| Format | Time (target 110 overs per game) |
| First tournament | 1850 (informally), 1892 (known as 'Liverpool Competition'), 2000 (ECB Premier League) |
| Tournament format | League |
| Number of teams | 12 (ECB Premier League), 12 (First division), 12 (Second division) |
| Current champion | Leigh CC, Lancashire |
| Website | www.lpoolcomp.co.uk |
The Liverpool and District Cricket Competition is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Liverpool area and since 2000 has been a designated ECB Premier League.
The Competition operates a three divisional system with Premier, First and Second Divisions, the Southport and District Amateur Cricket League is its feeder league.
Although many of the district's clubs had met regularly as far back as 1850, or earlier, it was not until 1892 that a Liverpool newspaper began publishing a weekly table and calling it the Liverpool Competition to create more interest in the game.
The eleven senior clubs making up the original table were Birkenhead Park, Bootle, Formby, Huyton, Liverpool, New Brighton, Northern, Ormskirk, Oxton, Rock Ferry and Sefton.
Neston were offered first team fixtures in 1908 and, in 1919, Hightown and Southport and Birkdale joined whilst Wallasey took over the fixtures of the Rock Ferry club who did not resume after the First War. Boughton Hall (later known as Chester Boughton Hall) were invited to join in 1923.
The Competition continued until 1947 when it was decided to admit a sixteenth club and Preston were voted in. Two years later, fixtures were standardised by all clubs agreeing to meet each other, and although there was no suggestion of a league, it was decided to regard the table as official.
Preston resigned at the end of the 1952 season to be replaced by St Helens Recs in 1953.
In recent years, the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition has changed radically. There was an expansion in 1996 that introduced clubs from further afield in Lancashire and North Wales but saw founder members Birkenhead Park, Chester Boughton Hall, Neston and Oxton resign to join the Cheshire County Cricket League for the 1998 season. Of the four, only Oxton had failed to be champions of the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition.
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