By Peter Stafford (March 1983) Back
It seems something of a paradox, that in a season during which the latter
stages of the Hamer Cup were spoiled by rain, when the eagerly awaited Wilsons
match against the Bolton Association was played under such cold, miserable
conditions, when the inaugural Edwin Taylor Trophy match was first washed out,
and then finally played under the same dismal skies, that in such a season, out
of the 264 League first and second team matches played during 1982, only six
ended as two-point draws due to adverse weather conditions. Comparison with
1981, when we suffered 37 such results, would appear to suggest that last season
was one of burning skies and scorched grass, which wasn't the case at all.
No matter, the championship was a memorable one, fiercely contested right
through to the last ball of the season, or very nearly. Kearsley emerged as the
top team, but not before they had beaten off the challenge of no less than seven
clubs, each of which could, at some stage of the season or other have fairly
claimed to have been in with a good chance. When the day of the final fixture
programme dawned it was down to three, Heaton, Little Lever and of course,
Kearsley, who had to travel to Bradshaw, never a journey to be taken with
confidence. Little Lever looked comparatively safe at Astley Bridge, whilst
Heaton, at home to Tonge, were ending the season in fine style and looked to be
favourites for the points. In the event, both Heaton and Little Lever did both
collect the maximum, thus requiring Kearsley to take two points away from
Bradshaw, whose batsmen had scored heavily before tea. And take two points they
did, but only after a fine stand between their South African pair, Hayes and
Osborne, had allayed some heart-stopping moments. In the end, it was left,
appropriately, to skipper Brian Quigley to ease the situation with a four in the
penultimate over, which meant that, after a season during which Kearsley had
topped the table continuously from May 22, two runs were required from the last
over of the last game, to give them the bonus point, and the championship. The
honour of scoring them was left to Phil Rawlinson, and the celebrations began.
It had been a hard-earned and deserved success.
The second team title, too, was decided at Tonge on the same day. Kearsley, 1981
"double" winners, proved not up to the task of defending their trophies, and the
top place was contested in the final outcome by Heaton and Tonge, who, by one of
those freaks of the fixture-list, met on the last day. Two weeks previously
Heaton had won the Birtwistle Cup, and their defeat of Tonge assured them of
only the second 2nd Team double in the League's history. If there were
celebrations at Kearsley that night, so there were too, at Heaton, where in
addition to the 2nd Team's triumph, the senior side's win over Tonge had ensured
them of third place which, in turn, meant that the club would be lining up in
the 1983 Greernall-Whitley Competition.
The first two rounds of the Hamer Cup were safely negotiated un( the blue skies
which were so prevalent in May. Round One produced c minor upset when lowly
Farnworth entertained and overc& Bradshaw, thanks largely to an unusually inept
batting display front i visitors, and good innings in reply from Ainsworth and
Wallwo Horwich squeezed through against a Walkclen team which has prove thorn in
their side on more than one occasion recently. In reply Horwich's 152, Lavelle
and Mir seemed to have things in hand, until Thomas dismissed them both and,
along with Mudassar, bowled Railwaymen to a 14-run win. Egerton's 224 was too
many for Astley Bridge, whilst at Little Lever, Eagley subsided after Firth and
Isherwood had given them a good start, and went down in the last over in the
face relatively controlled fifty from Gilbert Ellis. Little Lever's progress
continued with surprising ease in Round Two, when Egerton were bowled out for
100 by Powell and Ramadhin, whilst Kearsley went through at Horwich's expense in
probably the best match of competition. Deputy professional Jim Snowden's 6 for
45 helped his club, Heaton, through at Tonge, and over at Westhoughton the event
cup-winners enjoyed by far the easiest victory of the round, while Farnworth's
batsmen had no answer to the bowling of Woods and Burnage, to say nothing of
their own suicidal tendencies in the running department!
By the time the semi final stages were reached, the weather had broken and
although the Kearsley/Little Lever clash was completed before rains came,
Westhoughton and Heaton were not so fortunate. Kearsley batsmen, spun out for 96
by Ramadhin and Eccleshare, never really gave their attack enough runs at which
to bowl, although had Kearsley been a position to come back at Little Lever with
a spin-bowler or two, then, outcome could have been interesting.
Over at Heaton, the visitors, hit 166, a good but not insurmountable
total, especially, it seemed, when Todd and Hutchinson got their s away to a
flyer. But somehow Heaton lost their way in the middle order before finally
losing out in a frantic, rain-soaked finish to the game amidst a flurry of
skidders and lbw's, unable to retreive a situation
which, to a certain extent, they only had themselves to blame.
Only once in the last eight years has the Cup Final not been played on the due
day, but 1982 made up for all that! Everyone lost count of number of journeys
made to Astley Bridge, and the feelings of frustration were matched only by the
feelings of sympathy for the host club, whose arrangements for the game, both on
the original date and all subsequent ones, were excellent. Little Lever, having
won each of their cup-ties batting second, duly put Westhoughton in to bat, but
fine innings from Steve Woods and deputy professional Neil Philips meant that
they were faced with a total of 190, a difficult enough target on bright
Saturday afternoon, but one which took on even more daunting proportions on a
succession of damp, cheerless evenings. In the event they rarely got to grips
with the situation. Ellis was run out for 45, an after Sonny Ramadhin had failed
in his one-man demolition attempt o the Moss Bank Way houses, the end came with
75 runs to spare. Little Lever's gamble on batting second had failed, merely
providing Westhoughton with the better batting conditions, and whilst or]
invariably feels sympathy for any beaten finalists, especially when the go on,
as did Little Lever, to complete a runners-up "double" in cup an league, it was
good to see success go the way of Westhoughton, bearing mind their three Hamer
Cup Final defeats of the past six years.
1982 was very much a season for batsmen. Three in particular Todd, Hardcastle
and Ali, each threatened Frank Duxbury League record at some stage in the
season, but in the end it waz Farnworth's Darren Tucker who broke it, and pushed
up to within nine runs of that elusive amateur's thousand. Another League record
to go was that for the highest team score, when in May, Tonge overhauld
Kearsley's 297 for 1, and became the first side to pass the 300 mark in League
match.
For the second year in succession the Wilsons Inter-Leagi competition brought
nojoy to the Bolton League. The long-awaited fir round tie against the Bolton
Association was played at Westhoughton on a day that turned out to be
unrewarding in terms of weather, gate receipts and, to crown everything, the
result. After a good start, the Association batsmen ought to have scored more
than their eventual 175, but once man-of-the-match Mike Davies and Andy Mullaney
had gone, fine bowling from Phil Isherwood, who claimed a hat-trick, and Alan
Baybutt (4 for 29), saw the last six wickets go down for very few runs and the
League was back in the game. But an insipid batting display, which, allowed Paul
Tatton to take 2 for 3 in his ten overs, saw the score subside to 67 for 7, a
position from which there was no way out, and all credit to Jackson, Tatton,
Simpson and Seddon, each of whom took cheap wickets, and yet When Brian Krikken
joined Peter O'Brien, and the pair began to take the game to their opponents, we
had a glimpse of what might have been. They took the score well past the hundred
mark, and even began to raise a flicker of hope. But when O'Brien went for a
fine attacking 40, the end was in sight. Krikken had added 30 to his five
catches behind the wicket, and when the last wicket fell, 32 runs represented
the difference.
Some sort of revenge was gained at Little Hulton later in the season when the
League side ended a run of four defeats in the Trinity Cup series. Again the
Associated batted first, and their innings developed into very much an up and
down affair. 81 for 0 became 96 for 5, at which point Anwar Khan turned the
match upside down with an undefeated 60hit off only 39 balls. Together with
Raddi Patet's 55, and the fact that five of the seven wickets to fall to bowlers
had been taken by Powell, Mir and Knight, the whole thing was rapidly becoming a
battle of the professionals. And so it continued to be after tea, when the
Bolton League innings was utterly dominated by a superbly fluent piece of
batting from Parvez Mir. At 27 for 2, he had been joined by Ali, who helped him
to put together an unbroken partnership of 159. Mir'sreward came from the last
ball of the match, which took him to his well-deserved hundred, whilst Ali's
came a few moments later when, inevitably in a game so dominated by the
professionals he was voted amateur man-of-the-match. In 1983 the contest is
resumed at Egerton, with the League having made a little leeway, but still
facing a 7-4 deficit.
A similar annual series was initiated last August against the Central Lancashire
League in which, during the years to come, the Edwin Taylor Memorial Trophy will
be at stake. Although played under conditions hardly encouraging to
cricket-watching, this was quite easily the most closely-fought of the three
inter-league games, notable for a responsible innings of 70 from skipper Mike
Hardcastle, which went almost all the way towards achieving the 161 required for
victory. Sadly the League fell three runs short of its target, but the match
augured well for this year's meeting at Horwich, to say nothing of the Wilsons
clash between the two sides in June.
In recent years the League has always been strongly represented in the two NCA
junior competitions, and last season Horwich's Under-15 side kept the flag
flying, not only sweeping the board locally, but coming very close to bringing
the national title to Bolton. Their Bolton League "double" was achieved late in
the season when the championship was clinched with a win over Eagley, Little
Lever having previously been beaten in the Mervyn Porter Final.
In the NCA Competition, Atherton were the first team to fall, once the Horwich
lads had qualified from within our own area. Then to Old Trafford, where strong
favourites Longsight were eliminated along with Blackpool, after which the
competition moved to Preston. Here Ayr and Nottingham were the teams to feel the
weight of Horwich's power, but then, sadly, they went out to a Yorkshire side on
the last ball of the match, when victory would have put them in with a very real
chance of national honours. The star player in the side was undoubtedly David
White, who hit well over a thousand runs for the club during 1982, and still
found the 15
time and the energy to take 54 wickets. His reward was three first team matches,
and there are obviously several other players in the team with exciting cricket
careers ahead of them. For the record, and for future reference, the players in
Peter Litherland's side were David White, Martyn Spencer, Stephen Charnley,
Andrew and Martin Williams, Stephen and Graham Beswick, Leon Burns, Mark
Boardman, Andrew Holding, Alan Bannister, Michael Wilding and Mark Knowles.
Once again there are a great many people who we must thank for making our year
such an enjoyable one, beitin terms of organisation or of sponsorship. Little
Lever once again played host on Jubilee Finals Day, and as ever it proved one of
the year's outstanding attractions. Heaton and Walkden contested a Final which
had most spectators on the edge of their seats, until Paul Rimmer settled
matters by hitting the ball into Radcliffe with less than an over remaining! Ian
Seddon followed his 71 in the semi-final win over Egerton with 48 in the Final,
and was voted man-of-the-match, and he and his young side must have felt pleased
with their contributions towards the competition, if a little disappointed not
to have won it.
Derek Derbyshire guided his Horwich side to their Townson Trophy 'Success, when
Eagley were beaten in yetanother Final, which wasdecided with only a ball or two
remaining, after a tournament which had been a huge success from start to
finish. Again, we must record our thanks to William Townson & Sons Ltd. for this
competition which, whilst being so different from the outdoor game, still has an
abundance of skill and excitement on offer to both player and spectator alike,
and, this year, was probably not quite so far removed from the real thing in
both spirit and commitment as the pyjama-clad travesty which took place on the
other side of the world at much the same time! Our best wishes go forward with
Horwich on their journey towards the Finals.
Greenall-Whitley again sponsored the Team of the Month awards, which were won by
Egerton, Heaton, Horwich, Kearsley and Tonge. One great advantage of this
competition is that the rewards are shared. Indeed during the four years of its
existence, only two of the 12 sides have yet to taste the benefits of success!
The J. E. Owens Trophy awarded to the winners of the Bolton League Quiz was at
last wrested away from Hindley St Peters' grasp by Bradshaw, after a Final which
vied with all those mentioned so far in terms of excitement. During the course
of this winter, I have taken it upon myself to run the weekly quiz at Farnworth
Social Circle Cricket Club, and so, as 1 once again offerall our very sincere
thanks to Karen and Clive Knott, and to Paul Gradwell, I do so with perhaps just
a little more insight into what is involved, and consequently, with even more
gratitude than before!
A major loss from the League Committee was caused by the resignation of Arthur
Hargreaves in December. Arthur has been actively associated with the Bolton
League longer than most, as player, writer, administrator, and, above all,
coach. His work has been invaluable, and we combine our thanks to him for all
that he has done in the past with the hope that he may enjoy many more years of
cricket in the future.
Very recently, too late to be included among the obituaries, came the sad news
of the death of Westhoughton's Harry Coop, a Life Member of the League and a
Vice-President of the club where he played and served so faithfully for half a
century or so in many capacities. His friends at The Tyldesleys will have their
own memories of him. My own are of a League Representative of many years
standing, who brought his good sense and good humour to meetings, and who loved
his club and his League almost as much as his club and his League loved and
respected him. We shall all miss Harry very much indeed.
Once again, my annual vote of thanks goes to everyone to whom the Bolton League
constitutes a labour of love. To the umpires, who 1 sometimes suspect of
enjoying the game far more than do the players, to the groundsmen, to my fellow
secretaries, to league representatives and officials at both club and League
level, and, last but far from least, to the ladies of the League, who now have
their very own very worthy representative on our list of League Vice-Preidents.
May you all enjoy the warm, fruitful and pleasant summer that we hope will soon
materialise.