From the tiered steps of Stanley Park, the top of the Blackpool tower is visible, keeping its long watch over the Fylde coast. There is a pretty good crowd in for the last day of Lancashire’s County Championship match against Essex, queueing for coffees from the Froth Me Silly van and for the eight portable toilets lined up like tipsy soldiers at the South End.
After Dan Lawrence’s brutal pick-me innings on the Wednesday afternoon, 135 in 125 balls, with three lost three balls and nine sixes, Thursday’s play is more sedate, but just as gripping, as Lancashire attempt to chase a record-breaking 430. They get in touching distance, before having to shut up shop and losing their final wicket with 10 balls till stumps.
However, unfolding drama aside, there is another topic that is causing some animated discussion – the realisation that the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford this week will be the final men’s Ashes Test played in the north of England until 2031. The 2027 men’s Ashes will unfurl at Lord’s, the Oval, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and the Rose Bowl.
Old Trafford will host a Test in 2027, with the early touring team (whose identity is yet to be confirmed), and Headingley will host the women’s Ashes Test that year, long overdue with no women’s Ashes games held in the north since an ODI at Chester‑le-Street in August 2013. But none of the 15 million people in the north of England will have a local men’s Ashes Test to attend.
William Crookes, from Oldham, who is at Blackpool with his little granddaughter, has tickets for all five days of the Old Trafford Test, which is sold out apart from hospitality packages. “The atmosphere is always better further north – at Edgbaston, Headingley or Old Trafford,” he says. “When they dropped Old Trafford 10 years ago, the Aussies couldn’t believe it. It will be rocking there next week, just like it was at Headingley.
“Maybe we don’t have all the cream teas and the champagne but there is a different atmosphere once you get past Birmingham. There’s a hum and buzz at Lord’s – which is great, don’t get me wrong – but there is a roar at Headingley and a roar at Old Trafford.”
Trevor, from Lytham, who is sipping a lunchtime pint in the sun alongside his son-in-law Carl, is also frustrated: “It’s a disgrace because to me cricket is a sport of Lancashire and Yorkshire. You only need to look at the turnout at Headingley for the Test last week to see how popular it is. I’m so disappointed.”
Carl agrees: “It is fine coming up and watching at Blackpool but seeing some Ashes stars, those kids that might just have a passing interest, it might spark something a little bit more.”
The disappointment isn’t limited to spectators. Mark Wood, England’s player of the match at Headingley, born and bred in Ashington, Northumberland, loves playing in the north of England. “Headingley has had some [amazing] games: in the last series with Ben Stokes and this one was another great game. Old Trafford’s an iconic place to play. Durham as well … to see Test-match cricket up in the north at Durham is always special.
“I understand some of the reasons why but [I am] surprised there isn’t at least one game up here, because we get great support and they’re iconic places to play. [I’m] a little bit disappointed, just being from the north, that there isn’t one up here where you feel like you’ve got that extra backing and you can relate with people.”
The England and Wales Cricket Board awards Tests through a collaborative process, said to include criteria such as maximising attendances, enabling sustainable investment and maintaining a geographic spread of matches – though there are always Ashes Tests at Lord’s and the Oval – after the previous bidding process resulted in counties over-reaching themselves in order to secure games.
With seven venues crying out for a Test, the allocation process is a juggling act. Trent Bridge missed out on a men’s Ashes Test in 2019 and 2023, but hosted the hugely popular Women’s Ashes Test this year. The Rose Bowl will hold its first men’s Ashes Test in 2027 and a women’s Test in 2031; while men’s Ashes cricket returns to Headingley and Old Trafford in 2031 – with Edgbaston missing out.
Still, the feeling remains that, with a bit of fiddling with the schedule, the ECB could have ensured at least one men’s Ashes Test in the north in four years’ time to partner the women’s Ashes game galloping north at last, for the first time in 14 years.
