CHURCH CC are holding a special dinner tonight at the club to celebrate their 150th anniversary.

Stars past and present are expected to attend the event.

We look at some of the key moments in the club's rich history...

1850: Church CC started playing at three different grounds in succession, two years at each

1856: The club was officially born as they moved to the ground at Pickup Arms - owned by Captain Pickup of the local Artillery Volunteers - until 1888. Work on this ground was done by local unemployed people due to the cotton famine during the America civil war.

1864: Overarm bowling was legalised.

1874: The cost in September for beer for the band amounted to 85 pints!

1877: Wicket keeper Richard Pilling (pictured) played for Church. He was the only Test player Church ever produced and he went on to play for England against Australia twice. Claimed 421 victims for Lancashire. He is believed to have died of TB in 1891.

Also paid secretary James Bradley £25 for his long service - a lot in those days!

1882: Played Eton College at the Pickup Arms

1886: Won their first ever trophy - the Lancashire Amateur Cricket Association Cup, beating Darwen by an innings and 41 runs over two days at East Lancs.

1888: Thrown off the ground at Pickup Arms as Union Mill, latterly Rists, was built there

1890: Moved to current ground at West End, on a lease from Henry Petre of the Dunkenhalgh Estate.

1891: The tradition began of 'whitewashing' with the score of the derby between Accrington and Church being whitewashed on the wall at Church. The tradition continued until 1970 when it was stopped by police.

1900: Lost league play-off championship against Haslingden at Accrington. It was held over two days with the total attendance over 16,300.

1906: Silver Jubilee was held at the Commercial Hotel in Church. Became Church and Oswaldtwistle Cricket Club

1904/5: The great Sydney Barnes was pro - finished second and third in the league with him. The England all-rounder played for Church in 1904 for £6 a week plus a job at William Blythe Ltd. He made what is still a record for the club - 209 runs in a second wicket partnership with Duckworth in that year and took 72 wickets. The year after he took 82 wickets.

Aged 60, he was still playing - a phenomenon - this time for Rawtenstall and took 100 wickets in successive seasons in 1930/1.

1910-15: Cecil Parkin, who went on to play for Lancashire and England, was pro and he was the first to take 100 wickets in three consecutive seasons for any club.

1914-18: First World War. 38 members of Church were in the services.

1919: This was the year of the Joseph Winyard episode. He appeared from Whalley War military hospital and took 10-37 against Accrington. His history in full was never known.

To show the crowds cricket attracted, in a derby against Accrington in 1919 there were 11 gatemen, five policemen, three boys around the ground and five waitresses!

1921: The overall attendance for the league was 350,794.

Meanwhile the Church pro in 1921 was J Newstead and he moved onto Haslingden. In 1922,he faced Nelson's bowler Ted MacDonald, the Australian opening bowler, without any protection and was hit where it hurts and finished his life in a wheelchair.

1920s were lean years for Church but in 1922 Sydney Barnes was recalled as a sub pro to face prolific bowler Ted MacDonald. He was paid what was a king's ransom in those days of £25 for an afternoon's work. But the gate was 5,000 and the receipts were £140.

1928: Fred Hartley, one of the best all-rounders in the league, pro-ed at Church

1939: League champions for the first time with Hartley back as professional. He was instrumental with Tommy Lowe Senior in helping the club to that elusive first league win. Lowe took 101 league wickets which last time any amateur took 100 wickets in the Lancashire League.

Hartley, in total, played eight seasons for Church with 3,105 runs and 734 wickets.

1940-1: Won the championship in 1940 and 1941 but there were no professionals during the war years and were weakened sides

1945: Won the league again without a pro. There was an option to have a professional or not but Church and Rishton didn't and were awarded three points for a win instead of two.

47/48/49: Fred Hartley took 100 wickets in three consecutive seasons for Church

1950s: Financially it was a bad time although they did manage to make what turned out to be a prudent move and bought the ground for £747, thanks to an appeal to raise money in 1951.

1953 and 54: They were the nearly men with PR Umrigar, captain of India, as the pro as they finished runners-up in the league and lost in the Worsley Cup final. A new scoreboard was built for £404 with the assistance of the Players Fund.

1957-61: Bad years for the club as they won just 14 league games in all those years.

1962: Won 14 games in a season to be crowned league champions with Chester Watson as the pro. Recommended by Wes Hall, the star of the West Indies attack, the Jamaican starred. Described as "lightning quick and a big match winner," by Church's Jack Houldsworth, he took 117 wickets in the season. Alan Bourke also claimed 59 with Bob Fishwick and Alan Riding chipping in. In all seasons for the club - until 1967 - Watson took 546 wickets and scored 1934 runs.

1967-73: Lean years.

1974: Church won their first and only Worsley Cup, with Keith Arthur, from Barbados, the professional. Church beat Nelson in the final after claiming big scalps along the way in Haslingden, East Lancashire and Accrington.

1970s: Tom Ward, the chairman, through his strength of character helped to keep the club afloat and worked hard as Church went through another lean period

1996: An important year as the club, under the leadership of chairman Tony Marsden and Don Holt, got a Sports Council grant for £49,000 to improve the ground. They built the new pavilion, extended the scorebox and got fencing around the ground. It was an important step as it made it one of the best grounds in the league, which has held various representative matches since. The work was done on a voluntary basis.

All the club have to pay out now is the for the professional and stewardess.

2002: Mark Higgs made 163 in 76 balls v Lowerhouse; Church lost in the Worsley Cup final at Ramsbottom but it was a rain-affected final which went onto the Monday night when both pros were due to return to Australia on the Tuesday morning.

2003: Greg Mail got the highest individual score of 180 in the cup v Rishton

2004: Sri Lankan Ruven Peiris broke club records. Individually, he amassed an unbeaten 172 in the league for the club's high score and then scored the highest number of runs in a season, taking the record off Geoff Parker who had held the record since 1990. Peiris made 1295 runs. Finished runners-up in the league.