On the last day of the cricket season Andrew Flintoff MBE, Freeman of Preston, former captain of the Lancashire and England cricket teams, 2005 BBC sports personality of year, 2005 joint cricketer of the year, scorer of the most 6’s for England announced his retirement from cricket after a battle against injury.
Scoring almost 3,000 runs and taking over 250 wickets in international matches the highlight of his career was his role in the Ashes win in 2005 where he scored 9 sixes and took 7 wickets in one game. This was one of the all time best and a tightly played Ashes series which broke years of Australian dominance. Afterwards, in 2006, Andrew was awarded the MBE and became a Freeman of Preston.
Born in 1977 in Preston he attended Greenlands Primary School in Ribbleton and then Ribbleton Hall High. Throughout his youth Andrew excelled at cricket playing for St Annes and Lancashire. He continued to develop in the international game and became a national favourite of the fans with his outgoing, laddish joviality and big game temperament. He’ll be missed.