League Review - 1991

By Peter Stafford    (March 1992)    Back

Ask any league cricketer about the best way to win a championship, and in all probability hell tell you that it would have to be at home, in front of a decent gathering of his own supporters, on the last day of the season, in an exciting finish against worthy opponents, preferably with the weather to match the occasion.

The odds against those six requirements coming together must be long indeed, but it happened in 1991, and whoever wrote last year's championship script provided those fortunate enough to have been present at Piggott Park on September 7th with a match to savour, not only through the bleak mid-winter, but possibly for the rest of their lives.

The culmination of the title-race had been beautifully set up. With four games remaining, only four points separated the three main contenders, Farnworth Social Circle, Tonge and Horwich. Tonge still had to play the other two, whilst Bradshaw, still with an outside chance in fourth place, had to play both Horwich and Circle. And, lurking in the back of the Circle players' minds, was the uncomfortable knowledge that Kearsley would provide their final opposition.

In the event, each of the three leading clubs lost vital points, none more important than those dropped by Horwich at Tonge, and by Tonge at Piggott Park. Bradshaw had fallen out of the race when the last day arrived with Circle two points ahead of Tonge, and Horwich, a further four adrift, now required miracles.

Kearsley journeyed to Piggott Park with, on the face of it, nothing to play for save pride. But the rivalry between these two clubs has been intense during a seven-year period in which they have, between them, claimed five titles, and the home players would have been under no illusions about the size of the task ahead.

By teatime that task had grown almost out of proportion. Kearsley had hit 232 for 2, thanks largely to a stand of 143 between Paul Berry, who hit his first century of the season, and Glen Hughes, whose pulled muscle at 70 only served to expose the tiring bowlers and flagging fielders to a rapid, unbeaten and belligerent 41 from Craig Lavelle. If ever the character of the Circle batsmen was on the line, it was now. And they responded magnificently.

After Edwards had gone at 39, Hayes and Hallows put on 86, and at 125 for 1, it looked downhill all the way. But cricket matches have a nasty habit of turning themselves upside down, and a few overs later, at 157 for 5, the unthinkable, at least in the eyes of the Circle supporters, had happened. It was at this point that the news filtered through from Greenmount that Tonge were in an unassailable position! Now the batting character re-asserted itself in the persons of Jon Partington, who played confidently, and Paul Eckersley, who batted with the imperturbability of one who had seen it all before. They took the total over the 200 mark, and when Eckersley went at 222, 11 runs were required from 3 overs. Chris Lord played with a calm which he couldn't have been feeling, and, appropriately, it was skipper Dave McIlwraith who joyfully hammered the winning runs with two balls to. spare. As I said before, what better way to win a championship!

Circle were good value for a success which had been very much a team effort. Hayes, Edwards, Hallows and Coppin shouldered the main batting responsibilities. Each scored between 580 and 700 runs, and lesser but valuable support came from Regent, Partington and, on occasions, McIlwraith.

Paul Eckersley missed much of the season through injury, but on that vital day he showed yet again that he possesses the cardinal virtue of being able to produce what is needed on the big occasion when things are tight. He did it in the 1983 Cross Cup Final, again in the Lancashire KO Final four years later, and now, his partnership with Partington against Kearsley was probably the one upon which the game, and the title had hinged.

Coppin's 81 wickets brought his Bolton League tally up to 351 in four seasons, and another 91 were taken by Ian Nuttall and Dean Eckersley. Sadly, both of these talented bowlers have moved on, and it remains to be seen who will provide Coppin with the kind of support he will need as the club strives to defend its title in 1992.

It was impossible not to feel sympathy for Horwich and Tonge. Horwich had topped the table for much of the early part of the season, but their defeat at Tonge on August 24th was a blow from which they proved unable to recover. Their reliance on Grant Long and David White became a major talking point during the season, and there can be no denying that with a joint 2,333 runs and 179 wickets they were the mainspring of the side. But no two players, however talented, have ever accumulated 97 points on their own. They needed support, and got it from skipper Bill Entwistle, John Atkinson and Derek White, who combined to add a further 1,000 runs to the cause, and from Martyn Spencer, who batted well from time to time and won the League Wicket-keeping Prize.

Matthew Taylor, who was a good enough left-arm spinner to go on tour with Lancashire Cricket Federation, needs to bowl more than 116 overs per season if his full potential is to be realised. Perhaps, with Long and White having left the scene, this may happen in 1992. Grant Long, of course, was magnificent throughout, and to fall one run short of the League record must have been galling, if that is, he cares about such things. His unbeaten 94 at Piggott Park early in the season meant, too, that by half a dozen runs, he missed out on another record, that of seven centuries in a season, and he was, along with Paul Rayment, one of the personalities of the year. David White's new League record of 97 amateur wickets in an era dominated by batsmen speaks for itself, whilst the fact that he more than doubled his 1990 total says a thing or two about progress.

Tonge never actually headed the table outright during 1991. The best they could claim was joint leadership with Horwich for a week in early July. And yet they so very nearly snatched the title on that last day of the season, when Kevin Hayes' third century of the season ensured an easy win at Greenmount. Hayes himself enjoyed another prolific year. His 1, 109 runs included a new League record amateur individual score of 208, hit during a penultimate weekend to the season of which Little Lever will not want to be reminded.

During the course of the two days they conceded 623 for 4, 323 to Tonge and, the previous day, 300 for 2 to Eagley, in a match that came to within one run of a new aggregate record, and in which Steve Clarkson hit 187 not out, an individual record destined to last 24 hours! In fact, over that weekend, those two batting rivals hit 566 runs between them in their four innings, 265 to Hayes and 301 to Clarkson. And to think that, on half a dozen occasions, the League Batting Prize has been won with a season's total of below 400 runs!

But to return to Tonge. Professional Stave Dublin was down on his 1990 figures by 304 runs and 15 wickets, but his exciting brand of batting set new standards in early August when, against Heaton and the redoubtable Maninder Singh, his unbeaten 101 came in only 39 balls, almost halving the previous record, that of Nigel Young.

In June, Tonge's West Indian amateur, Phillipson Johnson, smashed the other fast scoring record, that for the quickest half-century, when the first 50 of his 103 at Little Lever was achieved from 16 balls. Opener Tim Hayes had a splendid year, hitting 746 runs and finishing the season with Bennison, Clarkson and his namesake captain the only amateurs above him in the averages. Nigel Partington, with 371 runs and David Tattersall, who took 42 wickets, played their parts and if Messrs Baldwin and Kerr can come up this year with a front line bowler to support Grant Long and Tattersall, then it would take a brave man to bet against them taking their first title for 19 years. In 1991 they came close, but it all turned sour for them that September day at Piggott Park.

Elsewhere around the League, Mike Bennison was demanding his interleague place back with a run of five half-centuries in his last nine innings during which he averaged over 50. Dave Seddon bowed out at Eagley after producing his club's best bowling of the summer. Maninder Singh wove his magic at Heaton and would have taken 100 wickets for for his late arrival plus a couple of wet weekends, whilst Otis Gibson became the first Farnworth bowler to take a hundred wickets since Norman Elliott, back in 1947!

Bradshaw's Paul Rayment proved the "find" of the season. Practically unknown when he signed for the club, he proceeded to do the double for only the second time in the League's history. His figures of 1,004 runs and 104 wickets included a century, 11 fifties and 14 instances of four wickets in an innings, and whilst his being awarded the Professional's Prize could not have been an easy decision for the arbiters when Grant Long's figures were considered, there is no doubt that it was a thoroughly deserved honour.

Kearsley, Walkden and Egerton each threatened the top places, but were too inconsistent. Players like Berry, Lavelle, Powell, David Smith, Bretland, Woods, Unsworth and Ian Taylor each produced good performances, but the three professionals' figures were all down on other, more productive years. To find Little Lever in joint bottom place for the first time since 1964 came as something of a surprise.

Batting wasn't a problem. Professional Steve Storey and skipper Simon Anderton both missed games through injury and still aggregated over 1,600 runs, with Settle, Savage and Whitty adding another 1,500. But the five main bowlers' 151 wickets cost a joint 28 runs apiece, and that statistic tells much of the season's sad story at Victory Road.

It was all so different for Simon Anderton's side in the early rounds of the Hamer Cup though. In Round 1 they saw Westhoughton off fairly easily, thanks to 50s from the captain himself, Settle and Whitty. For the losers Stuart Harrison hit more than half his side's runs. Elsewhere Bradshaw beat Heaton by 30 after having only scored 95 themselves; Egerton got the better of Walkden in a tense affair at Longworth Road and Paul Hodgson produced his best figures of the season, 7 for 22 to bowl Farnworth SC to victory against Tonge.

Runs came thick and fast at Dunscar, where Clarkson, Young and Watkinson all hit half-centuries as Eagley went through by 35 in a game which produced 479 runs. Kearsley, reduced to 45 for 8 at home to Horwich, managed to recover to 141, thanks to Lavelle and Luntley, but it was still 40 short of the Railwaymen's 181 for 8.

Round Two was dogged by bad weather. By Monday night Horwich had made sure of a semi-final place by winning at Eagley. Long and Spencer were top-scorers in Horwich's 225 for 8, whilst in Eagley's reply, Clarkson played very much a lone hand. Totally lacking any kind of support, he hit 94 out of 133 for 7, after which he was replaced by Mark Heywood, whose cheerful slog realised 51 and took the total to within 29 of the target.

Two days later Horwich were joined by Little Lever, Greenmount and Bradshaw. Little Lever topped the 200 again at Farnworth, 221 for 7 to be precise. It proved too many for the home side, although Byron Morris hit a fine 82 not out and Larry Booth 67 in a losing cause. The two Gary's, Chadwick and Neville, provided most of Greenmount's 169 for 7 at Egerton, and the two Stewart's, Terry and Mark were the decisive bowlers as Keith Hornby's side fell 47 short.

Bradshaw, meanwhile, shrugged off Social Circle's challenge. After Rayment and Morris Snr had bowled the visitors out for 120, Rayment and Morris Jnr completed the job with the bat. Their exhilarating partnership ended with a crescendo as 36 runs came from the final eight deliveries to complete the match.

For the second year in succession Greenmount were drawn to visit Bradshaw in the semi-final. There, however, the similarity ended. Whereas the 1990 tie ended thrillingly in the rain with a Greenmount victory, this one drew to a close amidst sun and shadows, with Bradshaw so much in control that it had ceased to be any sort of contest long before the final over arrived. Brian Cole's 63 laid the foundation of Bradshaw's 206 for 7 with Stuart Adams' unbeaten 53 keeping the momentum going. Mark Stewart took 6 for 68 from his 22 overs.

After tea Greenmount's batsmen never got to grips with the situation. Rayment bowled unchanged to take 3 for 57, and once David Morris was introduced into the attack wickets began to fall at regular intervals and the runs simply dried up. Morris, who finished with 5 for 36 from his 17 overs, had in fact announced his retirement from first team cricket in 1990, but was drafted back into the side for three Hamer Cup ties, in which he took 10 for 97 from the 46 overs he sent down. He also took 107 second team wickets in 1991. Some retirement!

In the other semi-final, Little Lever's cup form finally deserted them. Horwich, thanks to an opening stand of 118 from Long and White, and some later runs from Atkinson and Entwistle, set them a target of 2 10. At 138 for 2, the villagers were going well, but then 7 wickets went down for another 37 runs, and the end came with 11 balls remaining and Little Lever 29 runs adrift. Simon Anderton's 68 took his total in three cup-ties to 198. That was five more than Long hit in his four innings, and made the Little Lever captain the highest Hamer Cup run-scorer in a season which provided no cup centuries and, by and large, fewer runs than in recent years.

The Final continued that trend. It was, however, a tense affair that had spectators glued to their seats throughout its 87-over duration. Bill Entwistle's decision to bat first appeared to have been the correct one when the score reached 42 for no wicket. But this was to prove the game's highest stand, and soon, wickets began to fall. Long stood firm, and reached his 50 out of 76 for 3, but when he left at 86 for 5, Horwich were sinking deeper into trouble by the minute. Yet again Morris justified his selection, conceding a mere 18 runs from his 11 overs, and when Neil Senior took a superb sixth catch of the innings to dismiss Ingram, no Horwich batsman other than Long had managed to reach double figures. A total of 118 seemed to indicate that yet another one-sided Final was half over. Rayment, Walters and Morris had bowled beautifully, the ground fielding had been excellent and Senior had enhanced the family tradition behind the wicket.

Bradshaw began their reply confidently enough, and at 60 for 2 looked to be well in the driving seat. But then Cole went for 31, having been particularly severe on some loose deliveries from the Horwich professional, who now, finding a better line and length, took two more quick wickets, and at 72 for 5, all was possible for Horwich. Ten overs of common sense was required now, and it was provided by Stuart Adams and David Morris.

In what proved later to have been a match-winning stand they took the score to within 14 runs of the target and, again, Bradshaw seemed well in control. Now once again it all swung Horwich's way when Adams, Morris and David Senior were dismissed on 105. White was bowling as he had through the whole innings, like a man inspired, the fielding sharpened up, and, as lan Moss and Scott Walters began their search for the final 14 runs, the hard, wooden benches on the boundary edge suddenly grew in comfort as the best place to be!

Slowly the runs were gathered. Walters has played some hard-hit and very productive innings for Bradshaw, but I doubt he'll find any of them one half so memorable as his 6 not out in this game. Eventually, after what seemed an age, skipper Ian Moss hit Long through the covers for the match-winning three, and it was all over.

There had been so much to remember. The innings of Long and Cole, all of the bowling, Neil Senior's catch to dismiss Ingram, and Ingram's magnificent boundary catch by which he gained his revenge; the huge crowd which provided record Final takings, and finally and importantly, Bill Entwistle's sporting acceptance of a defeat that must have been hard to take. Three times his side had been on the brink of defeat, three times they had pulled themselves back into contention, and in the end, all that was left for them was the knowledge that they had made a very large contribution to another unforgettable Final.

Second team matters were dominated by Astley Bridge, Tonge and Greenmount, as they had been the previous season. Tonge beat Greenmount in a closely fought Birtwistle Cup Final, thanks largely to a fine all-round performance from Tony Bailey and an innings of quality from lan Senior. The two captains, Alan Kay and Ian Foster played notable roles, too, with 30 runs and five wickets respectively.

Brian Quigley's Astley Bridge side won a close-run championship from Tonge by two points. This title chase went right to the last day, with the Bridge's three points picked up against Westhoughton enough to see them through. Like their senior side, the Tonge players' huge win over Greenmount counted for nothing! For Quigley, the championship completed something of a unique collection, in that he has now captained sides to success in lst and 2nd Team Championships, and also to Hamer and Birtwistle Cup triumphs. He was helped greatly last season by his opening bowler Paul Williams, who took 83 wickets, and by Phil Warren who, with 721, was the League's leading run-scorer.

The successes enjoyed by Bolton League clubs in the Lancashire KO were, to say the least, minimal. By the middle of June all four teams had lost interest with only Farnworth Social Circle having ventured into Round Two. Having said that, three of the four went out in distinctly unfortunate circumstances; two losing on run-rate when the actual scores showed them to be in a reasonable position. The other was Egerton who, following an easy Preliminary Round win over Bolton Indians, went out as Kendal on a minefield of a wicket on which 18 wickets went down for less than 90 runs. Egerton, having been dismissed for 43, were incredibly, in a winning position until one batsman, hitting through and riding his luck, turned the tide for Kendal, who finished on 44 for 8.

Kearsley had a similar story to tell. In their Preliminary Round tie, a first-wicket stand from Hughes and Lavelle produced more runs than St Mary's OB were able to total as Powell and Berry bowled them out for 69. At Great Harwood Glen Hughes produced one of his rare bowling performances, taking 4 for 26 as the home side moved to 193 for 9. In reply John Ratledge hit 67 and Paul Berry an unbeaten 64, but just as Berry and Lavelle were looking to hit off the last 44 runs in the nine overs remaining, the rain came down. The tie was called off, and Great Harwood had progressed into Round Two by 0.3 of a run, whatever that is!

Farnworth Social Circle too, disposed of easy opposition before falling foul of the weather. Against Wardle CC Ian Edwards (97) and Wendell Coppin (60) led the way to 267 for 7, before all the bowlers used took wickets to dismiss Wardle for 34 less than Edwards' score. In Round Two the opposition was somewhat stiffer, but Coppin's superb 100 against Oldham deserved to win the game. Circle ended on 175 for 5, and when the weather broke, the CLL side, on 103 for 4, had the higher run-rate.

Only Tonge were beaten fair and square. Their task at Darwen was always going to be difficult after Graham Ainslie (101) and Australian pro Scott Hookey (88) had put together an opening stand of 162. Faced with a final total of 234 for 4, Tonge could well have done without Kevin Hayes being run out for 16, a fate that late befell his brother. Tim Hayes took perhaps too long over his 36, and when Dublin's late assault produced 37 in 32 minutes, it was too late. Jason Kerr was left undefeated on 39, as Tonge's innings ended on 159 for 9.

The National KO Competition produced its highlights for Bolton League clubs. Mike Bennison's 89 as Egerton lost at Liverpool; Tony Settle's unbeaten 104 as Little Lever went down to Leyland DAF; Tonge's ten wicket win over Huyton, when Kevin and Tim Hayes hit 152 for 0 in 29 overs; and a fine eight-wicket win for Eagley over Marple in which Franklyri, Firth and Clarkson each hit a half-century. Bradshaw won two rounds, against Magull when Neil Johnson's superb 85 not out was the main feature of a nine-wicket victory. Brian Cole top scored in the win over Cheadle Hulme before the side came unstuck at home to Bootle in Round Three, in spite of good performances from David Senior and Craig Duxbury.

But without a shadow of a doubt the team of the season in that particular competiton was Westhoughton. Putting their indifferent League form behind them, they went further in the competition than any Bolton League side had previously gone. Indeed, had they managed to have beaten Sheffield Collegiate in the Northern Final, they would have been in the country's last eight. Oddly enough, each of their six matches was played away from home, starting in neighbouring Wigan.

The home side's 168 for 6 was passed with an over to spare as Parker, Woods and Graham Hill scored the bulk of their runs. The second-round tie was played At St Helens over two evenings, the first of which saw Westhoughton very much in charge, having scored 208 for 3. Ian Pilkington (58) and Graharn Hill (91) were both unbeaten following a stand of 146 for the fourth wicket. The following night St Helens fell 58 runs short, as Mike Crookson (5 for 22) and Graham Hill (3 for 22) bowled them out.

The game at Leyland DAF was cut short by rain, and in a 36-over match Graham Hill turned in an all-round performance which guaranteed a place in Round Four. In Leyland's innings of 86 for 8 he took 5 for 15, and followed that with 58 not out in the nine-wicket win. Round Four at Ormskirk was very much the story of one man. lan Pilkington had two previous 50s to his credit in this competition, but his match-winning 103 in this game was an absolute tour-de-force!

Having reached 155 for 7 and then taken Westhoughton's first three wickets for 21, Ormskirk must have thought they were home and dry. But then Pilkington took over. Partnered first by Harrison and later by Brooks, he so dominated the home attack on not the easiest of wickets that the runs were obtained with an over to spare. Throughout his innings he farmed the howling intelligently as wickets fell at the other end, and the measure of his innings may be gauged by the fact that no other of his team mates managed to reach 20.

Next came Barnoldswick, where a nine wicket victory put the local side into the last 16. Crookson and Graham Hill took five cheap wickets as the Ribble~e League side was dismissed for 133, whereupon skipper Steve Woods (76 not out) and Graham Hill (51) knocked off the runs with some ease. Sadly, in the match at Sheffield it was the batting that let Westhoughton down.

In the previous five games they had averaged well over 40 runs per wicket, but a Sheffield total of 170, which should have been within their reach, proved 49 too many. Graham Hill, with 261 from his five innings, not to mention 12 wickets for 113 runs, was the star of the series, but the team as a whole had done the League proud in this most prestigious of competitions and they had achieved it, let it be said, with eight former Westhoughton 3rd team players in the side. Hopefully it won't be too long before one of our clubs can outstrip even this performance, and fly the League's flag at the game's headquarters.

Our 1991 Inter-League side followed the example set by those of 1983, 1984 and 1989, in that it maintained a 100 per cent record until the Manchester Evening News Trophy Final was reached, only to fall at the last hurdle. Incidentally, now that the Inter-League Competition, under its many guises, has, after 18 years, reached what might be termed its majority, it is interesting to look back at our fortunes and compare our success rate against each of the other individual leagues. Not, of course, that it proves anything, other than that an annual three-league round robin with the Ribblesdale and Lancashire & Cheshire Leagues might be to our advantage!

Our first 1991 outing was an extremely wet one at Astley Bridge against the Northern League. There was obviously going to be plenty of rain about and the captains took the interesting decision to reduce the overs to 20 apiece and to stick to that decision no matter what. Powell won the toss and put the visitors in to bat. After a bright start, the innings lost its way, and Powell himself was the leading wicket-taker with 3 for 28 out of a total of 117 for 7.

David White and Steve Clarkson served the League well as openers last year. Their average opening stand over the five games played was 60, and at Astley Bridge they exceeded that with one of well over the hundred mark to set up an easy eight-wicket win. White was dismissed for 42, but Clarkson went on to hit the winning runs and remained unbeaten on 67. The captain's pre-match decision had been the right one, but ironically, once the game ended, the weather relented, and we drove home in sunshine!

On the last day of June a friendly match against the Manchester Association was played at Worsley. Again the Bolton side was given a good start by White and Clarkson. Berry and Smith contributed another 98, and a final total of 199 for 7 proved 58 too many for the home side as David Smith completed a useful all-round performance with 3 for 34.

Two weeks later the Bolton Association were our opponents in the MEN semi final at Green Lane. All the League's bowlers performed economically as the Association struggled to 160 in the 48 overs, but it was David Smith, coming on as fourth change, who wrapped up the tail, just as he had done in the 1988 Final and again at Barnoldswick in 1989. He finished with 5 for 22, and when White (54) and Clarkson (70) yet again put the League on the right path with an opening stand of 88 in double-quick time, it looked as though we were in for an early finish. But once they had gone we were treated to a selection of less-than-memorable shots from one or two other batsmen, and suddenly, at 145 for 5, the home side was in with the faintest of hopes. Craig Lavelle, however, brought a bit of common sense back to the situation, and the winning hit came from him with 13 balls to spare. For the Association, Mawson's 50 had been a good one, whilst Terry Southworth, with 40 and ten overs for only 14 runs, could count himself unlucky to finish on the wrong end of things.

The Trinity Trophy Match went the League's way for the fourth consecutive year, but there were anxious moments during the early part of the game when that run of victories seemed destined to come to an end. After 25 overs the League, batting first, were struggling along on 57 for 3. This problem was resolved by Berry (37) and Rayment (56), whose fine, match-winning partnership, of 82 put the League back on the rails, after which a brisk 27 from Maninder Singh boosted the total to 188 for 8. The value of having a Test spinner to turn to had been amply demonstrated in 1988 by Heaton's Arshad Ayub, and now again the point was underlined by Maninder, who, coming on as first change, bowled his 10 overs for only 15 runs as the Association dropped further and further behind the required rate. The middle-order big-hitting threat of Price, Hitchmough and Killey never materialised, and Rayment further asserted his influence on the game with two quick wickets at a vital time as the League ran out winners by 20 runs.

Much was written at the time about the wicket upon which the MEN Final was played at Furness. Suffice it to say that an otherwise goodlooking pitch had been affected by the pre-match rain, and didn't play as well as might reasonably be expected for a match of this standing. Having said that, it was the same for both sets of batsmen, and the Trophy was won and lost when the home League's sixth wicket pair, Sample and Cowperthwaite, added 93 - 68 of which came in boundaries. 193 was the final target and twice, at 35 for 0, and again at 93 for 3, it looked a realistic one. But the fall of Smith and Berry at 95 and 111 respectively marked the beginning of the end, and in spite of a late rally from Powell and Ian Taylor, the Bolton team finally capitulated on 166. In spite of thus having lost our fifth Final out of nine, it had been a good season. The side had played well for 90 per cent of the time and from the boundary edge, appeared to have been very well led by Dick Powell who, in addition to his captaincy, had contributed a lot in a playing sense.

Keith Hornby's Egerton team became the third club to retain the Anthony Axford Indoor Trophy, as they comprehensively outplayed each of their four opponents. The Final, against Kearsley, was typical of their supremacy of the whole event when, after restricting the Springfield Road side to 64 in the 12 overs, they lost only one wicket as they raced to the target with more than half the overs remaining. Moving into the National Competition they easily overcame Oswaldtwistle before losing to Radcliffe in the area semi-final.

Tonge and Farnworth won through to the Jubilee Final at the expense of Eagley and Astley Bridge. In the end it was Martin Axford's side which took the honours, as Brian Wallwork and Man-of-the-Match Byron Morris inspired them to a score of 140. Despite a fighting innings from Steve Goodram, Tonge fell 20 short in the face of the four-pronged attack of Hall, Morris, Booth and Noakes, and it was sad that, after such a good day's cricket, the Trophy itself was not at hand to be presented to the winners. No fault of Little Lever's, needless to say. They yet again handled the arrangements for the Finals superbly. The huge crowds which had gathered for the Hamer and Trinity Cup matches at Farnworth and Eagley were also well catered for in every respect by the two clubs concerned. On each of the big days the two grounds, the organisation, and the cricket played reflected all that is good about League cricket, and sympathy had to be felt for Astley Bridge back in early June, when the weather never gave their inter-league game a chance.

The year ended memorably when, at the League Dinner, May Barlow, the First Lady of the Bolton League, was awarded the Hubert Pendlebury Memorial Trophy. Fourteen years ago her father had been the second recipient, and after an unbroken 32-year period as Little Lever's Club Secretary, May's own recognition was long overdue. The club, indeed the League, has never had a finer ambassador, nor a more enthusiastic worker, than this well-loved and highly respected lady.

Finally, our thanks are due to our sponsors, Fort Sterling Ltd, for their generosity and cricket-minded support, just as they are also due to the dozens of selfless individuals around the League who work so unstintingly on our behalf year in, year out, to keep our organisation in the forefront of League Cricket.