Local cricket: Sefton Park's Jimmy Dixon and Caldy's Chris Edwards star in Ashes triumphs

Two Love Lane Liverpool Competition cricketers are back with their clubs after helping their respective England sides get one over on the old enemy.

Caldy’s Chris Edwards captains the national learning disability side, while Sefton Park’s Jimmy Dixon is one of the key bowlers for the deaf XI.

And both squads returned from Australia last week with the Ashes in their grasp - an historic first for Dixon and co, and a third consecutive triumph for Edwards’ men.

Now they hope the cathartic triumphs- after a miserable period in Australia for the senior men’s and women’s sides - can help to raise the profile of disability cricket.

Dixon said: “This win could mean a lot for the sport of disability cricket in the whole of England, and it is important for me to increase awareness of deaf cricket for young deaf cricketers and hard of hearing cricketers, so that they can have an opportunity to get involved.

“I would like to see disability cricket have a higher profile in the future.”

Edwards, speaking during Learning Disability Week, agreed, adding: “It's a great opportunity to raise that awareness of not just learning disability displays cricket but also disability cricket in general.

“The only way I see disability cricket going is up, and long may that continue.”

Another Wirral player - Oxton’s Jack Perry, who is the wicketkeeper-batter for the learning disability side - put in one of the outstanding individual displays of the series, with 118 off 53 balls to set up a 95-run T20 win.

For Edwards, it was all the more important because it came on the back of the side’s only defeat, an agonising one-run loss in an evening game.

He said: “Playing under lights for the first time was quite a challenge.

“If we’d lost by 20 or 30 runs,