We analysed Washington CMT _ { 1 } photometry of star clusters located along the minor axis of the LMC , from the LMC optical centre up to \sim 39 degrees outwards to the North-West .
The data base was exploited in order to search for new star cluster candidates , to produce cluster CMDs cleaned from field star contamination and to derive age estimates for a statistically complete cluster sample .
We confirmed that 146 star cluster candidates are genuine physical systems , and concluded that an overall \sim 30 per cent of catalogued clusters in the surveyed regions are unlikely to be true physical systems .
We did not find any new cluster candidates in the outskirts of the LMC ( deprojected distance \ga 8 degrees ) .
The derived ages of the studied clusters are in the range 7.2 < log ( t yr ^ { -1 } ) \leq 9.4 , with the sole exception of the globular cluster NGC 1786 ( log ( t yr ^ { -1 } ) = 10.10 ) .
We also calculated the cluster frequency for each region , from which we confirmed previously proposed outside-in formation scenarios .
In addition , we found that the outer LMC fields show a sudden episode of cluster formation ( log ( t yr ^ { -1 } ) \sim 7.8-7.9 ) that continued until log ( t yr ^ { -1 } ) \sim 7.3 only in the outermost LMC region .
We link these features to the first pericentre passage of the LMC to the MW , which could have triggered cluster formation due to ram pressure interaction between the LMC and MW halo .