League Review - 1996

By Peter Stafford    (March 1997)    Back

If ever a League championship appeared certain to remain undecided until the last ball of the season had been bowled, it was that of 1996. After nine programmes had been completed in mid-June, Farnworth, Kearsley and Tonge occupied the top three places in the table, and there they stayed until the end, jostling and interchanging positions as the tension mounted. Never throughout the course of the season had there been more than four points separating first and second place, and at the beginning of August, with nine games left, Farnworth stood just a single point ahead of their two rivals. During the course of the next six games, Kearsley lost crucially to Little Lever and Walkden, and drew the vital match at home to Farnworth which they needed to win to have any mathematical chance of the title. Farnworth had also drawn their rain affected game against Bradshaw, but Tonge, after narrowly beating Greenmount by 8 runs and Farnworth Social Circle by one wicket, went on to complete a run of six consecutive victories which took them into the luxury of a seven-point lead at the top. And so on the first Saturday in September, with three matches to play, they stood on 111 points, Famworth 104 and Kearsley, now in need of a miracle, on 93. Neither Tonge nor Farnworth were faced with opponents they would have chosen to play on such an important day. Farnworth were at home to Westhoughton, who had made a spirited challenge earlier in the season and were destined to finish fourth, whilst Tonge had to travel to Walkden, a side well-practiced in beating the best and losing to the worst.

But this was Sikander's day. Putting aside memories of his team's defeat at Walkden's hands earlier in the season when David Smith hit an unbeaten century, he swept away the cream of the home batsmen, finishing with 7 for 24 from 20 overs. lan Taylor picked up the important wickets of Reldy and Tony Keays, and Walkden had subsided to an all-out 90. A second-wicket stand between skipper Anderton and Nigel Partington virtually settled the issue, and Tonge's players and supporters hurriedly made the short journey to Bridgeman Park to see how their rivals were faring. Famworth had been bowled out for 137, and although Pat Holder had got Westhoughton away to a reasonable start, they were beginning to lose their way. It was nail-biting time for all concemed. Bryant was bowling well, as was Drinkwater. A few runs - a wicket a few more runs - another wicket - even Brad Hodge got into the act with a rare victim! At one point it could even have ended an unlikely draw, but Harrison and Bentham, the 8th-wicket pair, proved up to the task, and when Bentham cut the ball away for the winning runs with only 25 deliveries remaining, Tonge's celebrations could begin, albeit in a slightly muted fashion on the ground of their main challengers for the title!

As we shall see, Kearsley and Farnworth's batsmen broke several League records in 1996, but Tonge reached new heights in the art of wicket-taking. Their 251 League and Cup wickets were more than any other side in the League's history had achieved, and that could well have been the decisive factor in the three-pronged assault on the championship. The previous best figure was 244, set in 1955 by champions Horwich, and just as the Railwaymen had, in Sutcliffe, Holding and Horsfield, two main bowlers with a third in support, so last year did Tonge. lqbal Sikander and Ian Taylor took 194 wickets from their 1059 overs, with Guy Langmaid playing the Horsfield role with another 35.

Sikander has now taken 355 wickets for Tonge at an average of 12.7, and everything suggests that he will carry on taking Bolton League wickets until his arm drops off, given the current ineptitude of English batsmen at all levels in their efforts to play good quality wrist-spin. Ian Taylor bowled his heart out at the other end, coming to within four wickets of the 65-year-old Tonge amateur record. His 80 wickets were second only to the 89 taken by Danny Bryant at Farnworth, and it is interesting to speculate on where the championship flag would have ended up had Ian not made the winter move from Bridgeman Park to Castle Hill. The side's fielding provided superb back-up, with Langmaid, Anderton and Nigel Partington sharing 47 catches, and I remember seeing two others taken by Kevin Kirkpatrick that, in fairness to batsmen, ought not to be allowed! Jon Partington won the League wicket-keeping award for the fifth time, and the batting, whilst not collectively reaching the dizzy heights of Kearsley's, was more than adequate. If Gary Garner's 749 didn't quite match up to the thousand he achieved in his last season at Clifton, it nevertheless reflected an excellent initial season in the League, and included the first-ever Hamer Cup century by a Tonge player. Simon Anderton's career best stopped just fourteen runs away from his first thousand, whilst Iqbal and jim Aspden shared another thousand. But Tonge's and, indeed, the League's player of the season was Nigel Partington, whose 1,215 runs would have broken the amateur batting record of any of the other 13 clubs. It included hundreds against Walltden, Egerton, Horwich and Farnworth, along with seven additional half-centuries, three of which were vital to Tonge's Hamer Cup success. Not surprisingly, he has now joined the professional ranks, and both Tonge and our inter-league squad are that much worse off for his departure.

Before the season started, few people would have bet against Kearsley regaining the title they last won four years ago. The side that ended the previous season as runners-up had been strengthened by the acquisition of Paul Berry, David White, Dick Powell, Dave Tattersall and Steve Lucas, and with Craig Lavelle batting at six it really didn't look as if anyone after that would ever get to the crease. Cricket being cricket, of course, they were bowled out by Tonge for 136 in the first game of the season! But Powell's 7 for 35 saw them through, and after nine games they were top of the table with seven wins and two winning draws to their credit. At the halfway stage they shared the lead with Tonge, but lost to the eventual champions in the first match of the second half. It was quite the most gripping game I saw in 1996, featuring tour-de-force bowling performances from both Sikander and Dublin, each of whom took five cheap wickets. In the end Langmaid and Kirkpatrick squeezed Tonge home at 114 for 8 with only three and a bit overs remaining. Walkden's double over Kearsley was a body-blow to their hopes, but such was their batting strength in 1996 that even in the six matches they lost, they still managed to average 160 per innings.

In total, their 5,396 runs were more than any other club had scored in a season before, 171 more than Greenmount in 1984. 886 runs during the course of their Hamer Cup run was, again, 19 more than Greenmount's previous record figure set five years ago. And never before had three batsmen from the same club topped the 1000-run mark in the same season. Bower and Tucker did it for Farnworth in 1984, and Storey and Tebay for Egerton nine years later, but Duxbury, Davies and Berry's achievement of last season is unique.

It was that sort of a season - a season during which more runs were scored than ever before. 64,468 to be precise. On the final day when Astley Bridge's 188 for 5 was the lowest total of the day, and when 21 batsmen helped themselves to a collection, the 2,944 runs scored was the highest number ever hit on one day of Bolton League cricket. And just to round things off, the 314 half-centuries hit during 1996 also provided a new record leaving behind the 297 of 1984.

On the individual batting front, of course, everything else pales into insignificance when measured against the exploits of Farnworths's professional, Brad Hodge. Where does one start? With the record eight centuries, three of which soared over the 150 mark? With his final total of 1,758 runs, which increased Dean Waugh's previous high watermark by 192? Or with his unbelievable sequence of innings between mid-June and mid-August of Lara-like proportions when 11 visits to the middle brought him an astonishing 1,017 runs. Farnworth's supporters will be delighted that he has been re-signed. At Eagley the news will not have been welcomed with the same enthusiasm! Memories of his 328 runs in the two innings against the Dunscar club will be too fresh in the mind. Not surprisingly, Hodge's achievements and those of fellow-Australian Danny Bryant did much to keep Farnworth's hopes flying for most of the season. Bryant's 89 wickets took him close to Jim Bennett's best ever figure for the club, and he added 496 runs and 17 catches for good measure.

The former Horwich quartet of Henderson, Spencer, Drinkwater and, later, John Ratledge, played a lot of good cricket, and when September arrived, Farnworth had only been beaten once in the League. Crucially, that had been by Tonge, when Taylor ran through his former club-mates to the tune of 7 for 40, and after the aspirations of Martin Axford's side had evaporated with the defeat by Westhoughton, Tonge and lan Taylor (5 for 46), completed a double in the last game of the season.

In addition to the five already mentioned, three other batsmen hit a thousand runs in 1996. At Walkden, David Smith completed the not inconsiderable feat of breaking his club's amateur batting record in three consecutive seasons, having hit 961 in 1994, 1,004 in 1995 and 1,169 last year, the kind of consistency, you might say, required by Walkden as a unit, if they are to recapture the heady days of 1989 and 1994.

Having lost their top five amateurs, Horwich were never going to pose much of a threat in 1996, but that had little effect on the form of professional Grant Long, who became the first player in the League's history to reach 1,000 runs for the sixth time. Five of them have come in the last seven years, and that fact, together with last season's 50 wickets and 16 catches, underlines the stability and continuity that is the hallmark of his professionalism.

Kevin Geyer became the sixth Greenmount batsman to reach the four-figure mark, and the measure of his consistency was that in his first 26 innings only once was he dismissed for less than 30. Michael Ward returned to Eagley in mid-July, and hit 523 runs in the 11 innings available to him, the mathematical equivalent of a thousand runs over a full season.

Two other batsmen from overseas enjoyed their year in the Bolton League. Mike O'Rourke of Egerton and Little Lever's Jason Swift, both from Sydney, each topped 800 runs. O'Rourke's 146 at Eagley equalled the club's top individual score, whilst Swift retained the League Catching Prize for Little Lever and Australia, won the previous season by Simon Helmot. Patrick Holder's elevation to Number One in the batting order may or may not have been as a result of the current preoccupation with 'pinch-hitters' in the one-day game, but for whatever reason it brought great benefits both to himself and to Westhoughton. Having batted down the order in the first four games, his promotion resulted in a half-century against Farnworth Social Circle followed by a rapid 107 against Little Lever, after which he never looked back, finishing with 739 as against 283 the previous year.

Established batsmen such as Bennison, Homby, David Morris, Pilkington and Harper all scored heavily, as one would expect, but three players who moved from the 'promising' category to that of 'arrived' were Simon Thomson at Bradshaw, and David and Matthew Parkinson at Piggott Park. Thomson, given a realistic chance in the batting order at last, responded with 774 runs, whilst Matthew Parkinson hit the League's first century on May 4th before going on to take 43 relatively cheap wickets in the year during which he captained the Lancashire Under-19 side. Elder brother David's maiden century came against Horwich later in the season, and he ended up seven runs short of 800.

In a year so dominated by the bat there was still room for some fine bowling performances. For Astley Bridge Steve Foster took 61 wickets to equal the club's best figure for an amateur, in spite of missing a game or two with back problems. His seven wickets against Egerton in the last match of the season finally brought him a third share in Astley Bridge's record. Mel and Les Whittle more or less carried Little Lever's attack once again, taking a joint 147 wickets from almost a thousand overs, but the all-round performance of the year was that of Chris Sainsbury, Heaton's professional, against Egerton. After hitting an unbeaten 161 out of 250 for 7, he still found the energy to bowl throughout Egerton's 201 for 9, taking all eight wickets to fall to the bowlers or, in this case, bowler, for 64 runs.

All in all, it was a good year for pro's. Shahid Mahmood and Bernard Reidy each took over 80 wickets, although the latter would have been disappointed with less than 500 rims. Dublin batted excitingly, as he always will do, but took only 36 wickets, whilst Dirkie DeVos, in his first season, will have learned what the Bolton League is about, and could well improve on his 781 and 45.

 Paul Rayment's were arguably the best all-round figures. Any club would settle for 909 runs and 71 wickets before the start of a season, and the South African's move to Walkden, where he will become part of a batting order that could rival Kearsley's 1996 line-up, will be watched with interest.

Enslin batted well for Egerton, but could have done with more wickets. Ballantyne's figures at Social Circle were those of a good amateur, and if Andy Williams disappointed at Greenmount, it was not in his batting, only in the fact that he doesn't bowl. If a professional is totally lacking in either of the two skills, then he must perform to an extraordinary degree in the other, as did Hodge, or, going back in time, Richards, Edwardson and Brian Jameson.

After what has seemed an eternity, but is, in reality, only four years, someone has at last managed to wrest the 2nd Team Championship away from Tonge's clutches. just when Tonge were in danger of investigation by the Monopolies Commission, along came Little Lever, who surged through from almost nowhere to take the title on the final day of a season which had seen Farnworth Social Circle, Heaton and Tonge as the main contenders. Little Lever themselves, having won none of their first six matches, were still in the bottom half after ten games had been played. But a superb second half of the season, during which they held the upper hand in twelve of the thirteen games played, saw them move to the top of the table for the first time with only two matches left. Horwich were then crushed by ten wickets, and all that remained was for the villagers to win their final game against Eagley to take the title.

By teatime, however, the task had become a little less than straightforward. Nigel Franklyn's 132 had seen Eagley up to 229 for 3, and now, Little Lever, who had reeled off ten 200 plus totals during the course of the season, were required to produce another, knowing that the championship rested on their ability to do it. Appropriately it was Roy Costello who played the leading role, passing the 1,000-run mark during his 68. Gary Pilling supported him with 49 as Little Lever moved to 233 for 6 and their fifth Howarth Cup success.

Keith Rushmore played the captain's role to perfection with over 700 runs, and the 2,357 runs contributed by himself Costello and Pilling had been no less important than the bowling of Phil Riley and Johnny Kerrigan, who each exceeded 50 wickets. During 1996 Little Lever's batsmen experienced the highs and the lows of the game. On May 18th, thanks largely to Sean Singleton's 109 and 73 from fan Rushmore, they hit over 300 against Kearsley. A month later they were dismissed for the season's lowest total, 33, against Horwich, this time thanks to the promising young leg-spinner Sean Fairbrother, who took 6 for 3. But all came right for them on the evening of September 14th!

Egerton won the Birtwistle Cup, beating Horwich in a Final that was dogged by poor weather. At the third attempt the game got under way with Horwich missing two or three of their regular players. Having restricted the visitors to 152 for 5, Egerton got home by three wickets, thanks in the main to a hard-hit and unbeaten 23 from Richard Smith and a fine all-round performance of 36 not out and 2 for 62 by Man-of-the-Match Nigel Barlow. Elsewhere around the League, Walkden's Phil Waring won the League Batting Prize, hitting 843 runs from only 13 innings, one of which ended on 179 not out to entitle him to a second award. Tim Calderbank emulated Costello, scoring 1,006 runs for Heaton, and Horwich's Phil Bakker was the only other batsman to top 800. junior Player-of-the-Year Rick Sellers averaged over fifty from his ten innings for Westhoughton, whilst Richard Hope of Farnworth Social Circle finished top of the averages, scoring 571 in eleven 2nd Team innings before moving on to another 385 in first-team cricket. Stephen Holt won the Bowling Prize for the third time in four years. He took 56 wickets, and in what was generally a lean year for 2nd Team bowlers, Walltden's Frank Hinks was the leading wicket-taker with 61.

For once, the Nouvelle Hamer Cup competition was blessed with good weather from start to finish. Round One threw up something of a curiosity in that Waikden were the only side to win batting first. After a good team performance had realised 185, Reidy and the Smith brothers made short work of Horwich's reply, which ended at 83. Tonge, the eventual winners, had a difficult start at Farnworth who, batting first, were dismissed for 134. Sikander took 5 for 50 as did Ian Taylor, who was to go on to take 17 wickets in the season against his former team-mates. Nigel Partington and Jim Aspden put Tonge into a good position with a substantial first-wicket stand, but excellent bowling from Bryant and Drinkwater brought their side back into the picture before Anderton and Dimarcello hit the winning runs with a couple of overs remaining. Astley Bridge had cause to be grateful to Martin Seddon for their one wicket victory over Eagley. After Foster and Mahmood had bowled unchanged to dismiss the visitors for 160, Seddon's undefeated 35 against his former club won the day with only six balls to spare. Westhoughton's innings at Greenmount was revived by half-centuries from Harrison and Rick Parker after Brett Collins had swept away the early order, but a final total of 192 was overtaken with some ease by Kevin Geyer and Andy Williams, both remaining unbeaten on 100 and 66 respectively. Mike Bennison, lan Moss and David Morris all turned in good performances as Bradshaw overcame Heaton by four wickets, and one of Davies and Duxbury's big opening stands proved enough to see Kearsley to victory by nine wickets after Beattie and Ballantyne had contributed most to Farnworth Social Circle's 175.

In Round Two the plot changed, with all four eventual winners having batted first. The sensations came at Kearsley, where Steve Dublin treated the crowd to a repeat performance of the previous season's semi-final. This time Astley Bridge were the reluctant straight-men as Dublin blasted his way to 156 from just 73 balls, 16 of which disappeared out of the ground. The previous day at Farnworth the big man had hit ten 6's in his 95. Twenty-six 6's in two days. There used to be stodgy opening batsmen who wouldn't have hit that many in a career! His 156 comprised a new individual record in Hamer Cup cricket, as did Kearsley's final to41 of 323 for 5. Almost as an afterthought, Paul Berry scored 92, his highest of the season, and Stephen Davies 44. Richard Northrop, in reply, was left stranded on 99 when Astley Bridge's last wicket fell at 205, and yet another excellent performance from the game was that of Kearsley's David Morris, who, whilst only taking 16 wickets in the entire season, finished in this game with 6 for 62, a feat which was largely responsible for his ending the year at the head of the bowling averages.

The other three games produced more 'normal' cricket, although there might well have been a Bolton League first at Egerton, where the home skipper, Wayne Harper, was ordered out of the attack after having twice been warned for running on the wicket. A century stand between Paul Stafford (79) and fan Critchley (53) provided most of Egerton's 194, and the wickets were shared as Bradshaw's spirited challenge ended 15 runs short, despite an excellent 38 from Neil Hart at Number 9 which belied his position in the order.

Tonge virtually had their tie won at the halfway stage, having hit 256 for 6 at Greenmount. Aspden, Gamer, Anderton and Waller each played well, but it was Nigel Partington's 77 which had set the tone for the innings. Geyer and Ankers began encouragingly, but Greenmount were never in with a realistic chance against Sikander, who took 6 for 57. The final game at Little Lever was one of long drawn-out suspense. Reidy's 51 led the way towards Walkden's 212 for 7, and Mel Whittle, who took 5 for 64 from his 25 overs, didn't deserve to end up on the losing side. Nor did Lee Baldwin and Tony Settle, each of whom hit half-centuries in a fine 3rd-wicket stand, but the end came when David Smith bowled Les Whittle with eight balls left and Little Lever ten runs short.

In all, 1,739 runs had been scored in the four games at an overall average of 27 runs per wicket. Who'd be a bowler! Well, Ian Taylor would for one, and having done much to send Farnworth packing in Round One, he now turned his attention to his other former club, Egerton, in the semi-final. Gary Garner's undefeated 117 dominated proceedings during the afternoon's play, taking Tonge to a final total of 217 for 8. Egerton began disastrously, losing Harper and Stafford without a run on the board. O'Rourke made a determined effort to restore the situation, helped by Enslin, Hornby and Critchley, but once they had gone, O'llourke for a fighting 58, Taylor was restored to the attack and brushed aside the tail, taking four wickets to bring his total for the season against Farnworth and Egerton to 26 in five innings.

In the other semi-final at Springfield Road, Kearsley overcame Walkden for the only time during the three meetings between the clubs in 1996. After David Smith had been dismissed for a rare nought, runs from Keays and Clarkson (57) led the recovery and a total of 173 was respectable, if not daunting. Dave Tattersall bowled well, taking 4 for 39. Kearsley's first three wickets fell fairly cheaply, but Paul Berry, helped first by Dublin, and latterly by David Morris, paced his unbeaten 73 well enough to have seven overs remaining when the winning hit was made.

The Final, Tonge's eighth and, as it turned out, Kearsley's unlucky thirteenth, was to be played at Eagley, and if the make-up of the two teams suggested a high-scoring game, it had to be remembered that the two league games between the sides had produced only 456 runs for the loss of 18 wickets.

In the event, the runs did flow. All Kearsley's batsmen contributed to a lesser or greater degree to their 210 for 5, with White's 64 and Lavelle's 43 the main contributions, but the main talking point surrounded the fact that Steve Dublin only got in for the last five overs during which he hammered 31 from 17 deliveries. Most of the talking, however, was done in hindsight. Had Dublin gone for nought there wouldn't have been any talking point, and having been dismissed by Tonge for 136 and 112 earlier in the season, Kearsley would almost certainly have settled for 210 before the innings began.

Tonge started badly, losing Gamer before a run had been scored. This brought together Nigel Partington and Simon Anderton, and not only did they manage to repair the damage, but in the process put together the highest partnership in the history of Hamer Cup Finals. 0 for 1 became 176 for 1, at which point the game was, to all intents and purposes, over. But then Anderton was run out and, as invariably happens following a big stand, his partner quickly followed. Three wickets down became seven as Tonge's middle order collapsed. Aspden, Sikander, jon Partington and Langmaid had fallen for, collectively, eight runs, and with Dublin and White sensing an unlikely victory, a dead game had sprung to life. Dimarcello collected eleven priceless runs before becoming Dublin's third victim, and in the end it was all down to Wailer and Kirkpatrick, who eventually found themselves needing six as the match went into the final over. Kirkpatrick scythed the first ball away for four square on the off-side, and Tonge's fifth Hamer Cup Final victory arrived on the third ball with another off-side four, variously described by bowler David White as a thick edge, and by batsman Bob Wailer as an angled bat shot!

No-one, however, was in any doubt as to the quality of the cricket that had been played, nor was anyone in two minds as to the excellence and efficiency of Eagley's handling of the event, both of which had contributed so much to yet another memorable day in the annals of the competition.

There are six differing sets of circumstances in which a Lancs Knock-out match can be decided. At best, by a normal game of cricket played in good weather. Failing that, by playing a full match in the rain, or by working out the superior run-rate in a truncated one. Or by the opposition conceding a tie without going on to the field, by bowling a ball at the stumps, or, worst of all, by the toss of a coin. Unbelievably, in 1996, the five clubs representing the Bolton League in the competition experienced, between them, all six!

Two of our clubs were in action in the Preliminary Round, Horwich achieving an easy victory over Woodbank, and Little Lever an easier one at home to Rochdale St.Thomas's. Sean Singleton hit 101 and jim Worrall 82 in a massive 298 for 6, which proved 211 too many for the Rochdale side. In the First Round proper Little Lever carried on their merry way, with Mel Whittle and Martin each reaching the 40's in a total of 204 for 7, to which New Longton could only reply with 46 for 8.

Corner Tigers, Tonge's would-be opponents, pulled out of the match, and Camforth lost out on a toss-up against Horwich to enable the two Bolton clubs to meet in Round Two. Kearsley's tie with Chorley St.James proved a formality (47 - 48 for 2), but Walkden were less fortunate. They were bowled out for 99 at Stand, and the rain came down with the home side on 50 for 2,but in front on run-rate. Little Lever's good run continued at the expense of Micklehurst, who could only muster 114 in reply to 203 for 9. Settle hit 54, Hilton 47, and Martin and Battersby each took three wickets. Kearsley's win over Moorside proved not quite as easy as might have been hoped. Tonge batted first at home to Horwich with Nigel Partington's half- century pushing his side's score over the 200 mark. Long went early, and Horwich's innings ended short of three figures.

Round Three saw the Bolton League's interest in the competition come to a full-stop. Kearsley, at home to Denton, were forced into a bowl-off which they lost 3-1, whilst on the same day Tonge opted to play in the rain against Little Hulton. In spite of having been in the driving seat after tea, thanks to fifties from Gamer and Anderton, their later batting faded, and the challenge came to a damp end. Little Lever, facing a huge 252 for 3 which owed everything to an impressive 156 not out from Paul Simonite, bowed out to visitors Blackpool. The home team could only reach 113 with Sri Lankan professional Tillakaratne's leg-spin the main feature of the innings. He bowled superbly to take 5 for 44, but his posturing and, it has to be said, provocative gesticulations when taking wickets, should have no place on a cricket field.

Considering the prestigious nature of this competition, it still has too many inherent problems. Nine of the thirteen matches involving Bolton League clubs produced either administrative questions that remained unanswered, or were mis-matches. Only four resulted in good, competitive cricket for the paying spectator, and that is not enough. Obviously the weather didn't help, but something could be done about the proliferation of one-sided games, and to ensure that at every tie, both umpires and both teams are on the same wavelength when it comes to competition rules and cut-off dates, something that didn't always appear to be the case in 1996.

Had it not been for the rain which put paid to the Trinity Cup match at Golborne, last season could well have been one of undiluted success for the inter-league side. The only hint of good fortune came in Round One of the MEN Trophy at Leyland, when the Bolton League went through on a superior scoring-rate. Stephen Davies (68) and David White (61) had led the way back from the depths of 44 for 3, and their century stand became the first of three during the season, each one of which featured Davies. The innings closed on 201, and when the weather interruption came, the Northern League still needed 79 with six wickets in hand. Both sides thought they were in with a good chance, and both sides were probably right. The irony was that when the game was brought to its abbreviated end, the two batsmen at the wicket were Neil Bannister on 57, and Nigel Heaton on 15, neither of them exactly strangers to Bolton cricket.

Before the semi-final, the annual friendly against the Manchester Association was played at Green Lane. Once again an important factor was the authoritative batting of Steve Davies, who hit a superb unbeaten 122, sharing in stands of 72 with Paul Berry and 106 with Wayne Harper. In his six inter-league games of 1996, during which he was only once dismissed for less than 50, Davies was to total 313 runs at an average of 78. The Association's innings ended on 149 for 6.

The side travelled to Prestwich for the MEN semi-final, and yet again a century-stand set the pattern for the League's success. This time it was Craig Duxbury who dominated proceedings with 104 from 125 balls, with Davies adding 52 to the first-wicket partnership of 140. 234 was the Lancashire County League's target, and at one worrying point their reply stood on 111 for 1. But the return of Stewart and Taylor was decisive. Stewart put a brake on the scoring, and then bowled the dangerous Bocarro for 69, after which Taylor ran through the rest of the side, finishing with 5 for 22 from his eight overs.

The Trinity Cup match fell victim to the weather for only the second time in 26 years. Steve Dublin and Tinus Enslin hit 48 and 46 respectively out of the League's 190 for 8, with Nigel Young taking 4 for 35 in the middle of the innings. Cliff Westby's fine wicket-keeping was one of the few highlights of an otherwise fairly mundane afternoon's play and, with both teams fancying their chances, the rain was particularly aggravating.

Much the same could be said about the League's first attempt to lift the MEN Trophy on August 11th, a trophy last won outright in 1988. The Central Lancs League totalled 195 for 7, with Mike Crookson the most economical of the bowlers, but with the Bolton innings standing on 34 without loss, the rain again had the final say. The Bolton run-rate was far superior to that of the home side, and seven more runs from another 3.2 overs would have been enough to have ensured victory. It would have been a fairly hollow one, though, and much less preferable to the eventual outcome a month later. Sunday September 15th was the kind of day for which the term 'Indian Summer' might have been coined. Again the home tearn batted first, and this time, thanks largely to some penetrative bowling from Stewart and Taylor, each of whom ended up with 3 for 23, they left the Bolton side with a target of 166. At one stage it looked as if the task would be much simpler, but a fighting stand between Punchard and Moore breathed new life into the innings, taking it from a fairly desperate 90 for 7 towards something approaching respectabilty..

The Bolton innings was opened by Davies and Nigel Partington, each of whom had hit an unbeaten hundred the previous day. It was Partington's inter-league debut, and I suppose the greatest compliment one could pay him is to say that, on the day, Craig Duxbury wasn't missed. Together he and Davies raced towards victory with a stream of fine shots interlaced with some excellent running between the wickets. By the halfway stage they had reached 92, at which point Partington went. Now the innings began to lose its momentum. Berry fell cheaply, Davies and Morris found themselves strangely becalmed after such an inspired start, and when they and White were dismissed, visiting supporters actually began to fear the worst. But a couple of catches went down, Harper and Lavelle began to assert themselves, and with five runs needed from the final over, an imperious six over long-on by Lavelle from Dearden's first delivery brought matters to an end. From a Bolton League point of view at least, it was the perfect finish to the game and, indeed, to the season. The Littleborough club had twice staged the Final superbly, and on the second occasion had been rewarded with the kind of weather that you don't normally dare to expect in mid-September.

It wasn't the end of the season, of course. The following Sunday it was Jubilee Finals Day at Little Lever, and with Westhoughton, Farnworth, Kearsley and Little Lever themselves having qualified for the semi-finals, there was a 50/50 chance of a new name on the trophy. It wasn't to be, however. In the first game the host club went out to Kearsley by a seven run margin with only Nigel Hallows really threatening Kearsley's 104 for 7, whilst Martin Axford and Larry Booth were largely responsible for Farnworth's 14-run win over Westhoughton. During the losers' all out 104, Rick Sellers' innings gave some indication*of why he was voted young player-of-the-year.

The Final between Farnworth and Kearsley was largely the story of four batsmen, two of them brothers. In Kearsley's 135 for 3, Paul Berry (54) and David Morris (46) each remained unbeaten, and 23 from the last over of the innings seemed to have put matters beyond the reach of Martin Axford's side. But John Ratledge (60) and Peter Morris (45) replied in kind, and, with ten an over having been the asking rate for the last eight, the final six balls arrived with 8 runs required. Morris hit the first two balls for four, and that was that. He was rightly adjudged Man-of-the-Match by Mel Whittle, Farnworth had achieved their third success in six years, the season really had come to an end, and nothing remained but to thank Little Lever for the usual high standard of organisation which had once again contributed so much to this most enjoyable of days.

In January Farnworth Social Circle added the Anthony AxIord Indoor Trophy to the Crumblehulme Cup and those won during the summer at 3rd Team level. Westhoughton were their victims in the Final. After a bye in Round One they disposed of Kearsley in the quarter-final, thus reversing last winter's Final result. Astley Bridge were beaten in the semi-final, and if skipper Dean Eckersley's fine all-round display in the Final stole the headlines, the success was a triumph for the whole side, with Simon Harrison, Christian Walsh, who kept wicket brilliantly throughout, Matt and David Parkinson and Paul Rawlinson each playing their part in the three ties. Moving into the county finals, they beat Greenmount but lost to the very accomplished Haslingden team in the Final. In the two games, Eckersley's good form continued with a combined analysis of 6 for 34 and an unbeaten 34 against Greenmount.

At the League Presentation Dinner in November Little Lever's Albert Smale was rewarded for his many years of service at Victory Road by the award of the Hubert Pendlebury Memorial Trophy. Albert has been a highly respected and hard-working member of our local cricket community throughout the post-war years, and hIs immense knowledge of his club, and of league cricket in general has long been of great value, both to me, and doubtless to many others. This might be an appropriate point for me to place on public record my appreciation of all the other people throughout the League whose profound interest in the history of their clubs and of the League has been at my disposal over the years. Names that spring readily to mind are those of Reuben Mather, George Tildesley, Kevan Mayoh, Arthur Crook, Barry Taylor and Geoff Cleworth. There are others, and 1 thank them all for their willing assistance.

Finally, could I express the League's continued gratitude to all our various benefactors. Mainly, of course, to Fort Sterling, whose increased sponsorship will now take us into the 21st century. Thanks, too, to Tony Axford, by whose generosity we are able to hold the only genuine league Indoor Competition in the county. He has been created a Vice-President of the League and deservedly so.

The very high standard of cricket played throughout the League during 1996, acknowledged by Graham Yardley earlier in the book, would seem to belie the gloomy philosophies of those responsible for the creation of the new Premier League, Along with several other leagues in the county, we consider ourselves to be a premier league. The names of those clubs which have been chosen to form the Premier League will be announced as this handbook is going to press. Given the seeming indifference to the project shown by clubs from half-a-dozen major leagues, those names are awaited with interest.