League Review - 1997

By Peter Stafford (March 1998)    Back

One thing about 1997. If, at any given moment, it wasn't actually raining, you knew that either it had just stopped or that it was just about to start! The season began prophetically with a total washout, seven subsequent league programmes and one cup round were drastically curtailed, and by the time the last ball had been bowled in mid-September, almost one in every three games, at first and second team level, had been affected by rain to a greater or smaller degree.

None of that, however, worried Tonge unduly, as they moved almost inexorably to a second consecutive championship. Indeed, the only real effect all the rain had at Castle Hill was to deny Iqbal Sikander a fourth bag of a hundred wickets.

If I may digress for a moment. In March 1994 Tonge had signed Ezra Moseley as their contracted professional, until a fax, arriving almost on the eve of the season, informed the club of his injury. On reflection, that fax may well have been the most significant message in the club's history. Moseley was a fine cricketer and would doubtless have done well. But could he have guaranteed Tonge, in the space of four years, 448 wickets, 2,141 runs, two championships and a couple of Hamer Cup Final appearances? If it were my job to find a club professional, in the current batting climate, I would scour the earth for a top class wrist-spinner who could bat!

However, Tonge's team successes have only come in the last two seasons since the advent of Ian Taylor, and his 158 wickets have complemented Sikander's chosen method of attack to perfection, whilst, in 1997, Matthew Bode's 37 wickets gave excellent support to the main act. Nigel Partington's 1,200 runs of the previous season were always going to be missed, but Simon Anderton, Bode, and Gary Gamer combined to contribute over 2,000, and after a poorish first half of the season at Kearsley, Paul Berry joined Tonge at the beginning of August and began to look more his usual self, averaging 47 in his eight innings for his new club.

Tim Hayes, one of the most solid opening batsmen in the area, seemed almost surplus to requirements as he shuttled up and down the order, but still managed to average 61, whilst Jim Aspilen would have been disappointed with only half the total he achieved in each of the two previous seasons. Jon Partington topped the list of wicket-keepers for the fifth time, his 38 victims taking his Tonge total to 158 in four seasons.

While Simon Anderton's side were most people's favourites to retain their title, Kearsley, Westhoughton and WaIkden made sure they didn't have things all their own way. After five matches, only one had been won, a nail-biting last over affair at Egerton, and a 69-run defeat at Greenmount in the fifth found Tonge halfway down the table. But then a run of six wins and 125 points from the next seven games took them into first place, a position they retained for the remainder of the season. It still wasn't all plain sailing, however, and a potentially disastrous 131  run hammering at Westhoughton saw the Tyldesleys club close the gap to a mere three points.

But it was Westhoughton who faltered, as Tonge strung together another sequence of five wins out of six which took them to the brink of the title with three matches left. Yet another washed-out programme was followed by the draw at Astley Bridge which, with Kearsley having lost at home to Egerton, was all that Tonge required, A highlight of the championship-clinching encounter at Sharples Park that was otherwise best forgotten, was Ian Taylor's unbeaten 49, an innings that took him into the dizzy heights of the top twelve in the League's batting averages. It was an achievement that, in years to come, his grandchildren ma., well grow tired of hearing about!

Westhoughton's excellent season peaked just after the halfway mark, when three consecutive victories took them to within three points of the leaders, but they could only manage two further wins from the final ten games, and had to be content with third place. Their triumvirate of pace-bowlers, Rod Estwick, Ranjit Banabhai and Patrick Holder between them saw off over 150 batsmen at a reasonable cost, but inter-league bowler Mike Crookson, in sending down only 122 overs, possibly used himself a little too sparingly, particularly as his spin provided the only real variety in the club's attack. With seven batsmen averaging over twenty, run-scoring was rarely a problem. Steve Parker, Estwick, Pilkington and Holder combined to hit over 2,300 runs, with Harrison, Bentharn and Crookson each playing important innings. Rick Parker and Andy Forshaw are much better players than might be suggested by their 1997 figures, and Richard Sellers' two first-team half-centuries underlined his bright future. With only 15 points separating them from second-placed Kearsley, Westhoughton will have looked back ruefully at their mid-season defeat at Springfield Road, when Kearsley, in pursuit of 157 from only 20 overs, hit the winning four from the last ball after an exhilarating run-chase, during which Steve Dublin hit a 24-ball 68. But it was David White who hit the winning runs, batting through the innings after having taken five wickets, and this was just one in a succession of fine all-round performances which brought tangible rewards in the form of the players Player-of-the-Year Award and a professional contract at Little Lever. His 877 runs and 72 wickets provided the backbone of Kearsley's challenge, and his departure, together with the doubts surrounding Craig Lavelle's immediate future, means that none of the first six at the top of Kearsley's batting order in 1996, Duxbury, Davies, White, Berry, Dublin and Lavelle, will be on view at Springfield Road in the coming season.

Walkden, with a batting order to rival the one I've just mentioned, were many people's favourites at the outset to the season, but yet again they were haunted by the inconsistency that has been their downfall in recent years. That, and a lack of variety in their bowling, with the pace of Rayment and the Smith brothers only relieved by 131 overs of Alan Gaskell's gentle off-spin. Defeat after a titanic struggle at home to Tonge in late-June ended a run of three successive wins which had taken them into joint leadership with the Castle Hill side, and they managed to keep in touch with the leading clubs until two defeats in one August weekend at the hands of Kearsley and Astley Bridge removed any remaining hope.

429 runs in a season might, for a run-of-the-mill player, be regarded as a fair season's reward, but, for a batsman of David Smith's calibre it bordered on the disastrous. He wasn't alone. At the start of the season you wouldn't have backed against either Smith, Paul Berry or Grant Long reaching a thousand runs.

Jointly, they've done it a dozen times before. And yet the fact remains that, unbelievably, they only just managed to get past the four-figure mark between them. No doubt it will remain in the record-books as something of a curiosity, rather than as any guide to future form.

Two players who did rather better in 1997 were the Egerton pair of Mike O'Rourke and Stuart Hornby. With 1,166 runs and 77 wickets respectively, each broke his club's amateur record, and their contributions had much to do with the Longworth Road club's eighth Hamer Cup success described later in this article. Dirkie DeVos, in his second season at Eagley, was a constant source of inspiration to his side, and was rightly awarded the Professionals Prize for his 1,177 runs and 60 wickets. He was the League's leading run maker, although whether he would have been had Brad Hodge not been deprived of his final six matches will remain a matter of conjecture. Hodge topped the averages and hit 931 runs, before a hand-injury sustained against Walkden ended his season prematurely. Oddly enough, in the same innings, Farnworth's Australian amateur, Tim Hooper, handled the ball rather more intentionally, and became the Bolton League's first batsman to be given out in that fashion in over 50 years.

Hooper was one of several overseas amateurs to enjoy success in 1997, hitting 698 runs and taking 23 wickets. O'Rourke and Bode have already been mentioned, and Jason Swift, with 923 runs, finally broke the longest-standing club batting record in the book, that of Heaton's Fred Prescot back in 1952. Matthew Bode's 802 runs included a run of five consecutive fifties which ended against Farnworth when he was caught for 44 by Brad Hodge, the most recent player to have hit six!

Whilst it is hard to think of Patrick Holder as an overseas player after four years at the Tyldesleys, he nevertheless is, and he took 58 wickets and hit 656 runs. Patrick now has 2,174 runs and 255 wickets to his credit since first arriving in the League, and it seems something of a pity that rules and regulations should debar him from seeking the professional engagement that his all-round ability demands, simply because he has no first-class experience. Bad news for Patrick - good news for Westhoughton! The quartet of Australians, Ross Woodall at Farnworth Social Circle, Chris Neal at Walkden, Greenmount's Andy Downton and Ed Zelma of Bradshaw each hit between five and seven hundred runs, with Downton and Zelma each throwing in 40-odd wickets for good measure, whilst at Horwich, South African Zubiar Garda had a superb start to the season, reaching 500 runs by early July before falling away somewhat to end with 646.

On the professional front, the one event that overshadowed everything else for all the wrong reasons occurred when Chris Sainsbury, Heaton's professional, walked away from the match, the club and the League after only a few minutes of his team's home game against Farnworth. The visitors made the most of the situation, hitting 304 for 6, and the teatime conversation on the Heaton table would have made interesting hearing, to say the least! In the event, thanks to runs from Swift and Warwick Milne, the game was saved, but, off the field, the affair rumbled on for several months.

At Greenmount, Richard Chee Quee played well but was 600 runs short of his 1994 total for the club. Of the two newcomers from overseas, Sajid Shah fared the better. His 76 wickets for Bradshaw came at an acceptable cost, and, when conditions were right, he was capable of creating havoc with his late in-swing, notably at Kearsley where his 7 for 40, six clean-bowled, destroyed one of the League's more powerful batting line-ups. Kevin Darlington's 60 wickets at Piggott Park were obtained at a higher price, but he will have learned from his first season in the League.

Paul Rayment's bowling was hampered by a mid-season injury, but only seven players in the League scored more runs than his 785. Mel Whittle maintained a decent economy rate, but took only half his usual quota of wickets, a problem not shared by Astley Bridge's Shahid Mahboob. His 81 wickets brought his three- year tally at the club up to 237, and he continued to be a credit to his club and league by the very active interest shown in the young players at Sharples Park, an interest perhaps reflected in the successes of the club's youngest sides.

Wayne Harper hit over 600 runs for Egerton, and played a vital batting role in the final two rounds of the Hamer Cup, whilst Steve Dublin, in his final season at Kearsley, although inconvenienced for part of the year by illness, stopped just short of 600 runs and 50 wickets.

Back amongst the amateurs, Astley Bridge's openers Ian Warren and Rick Northrop, shared over 1,400 runs almost equally, and another batsman who stepped up a gear was Neil Johnson. His 761 for Bradshaw took him into run scoring territory far in advance of anything previously reached. In a very much below- par Little Lever side, ravaged by the pre-season loss of key players, Anthony Hilton achieved an excellent level of batting consistency. His 640 almost doubled his previous best, and he went beyond 25 in all but ten of his 24 innings. David Parkinson, too, shared much the same level of reliability after having moved house and home to Lower Pools midway through the season, when 354 runs came from the nine innings he played for Heaton.

The 1997 award for Rediscovery of Form belonged to Mike Ward, who started the season at Little Lever, where he totalled just 52 in seven knocks. On his return to his former club, Eagley, 16 subsequent innings resulted in a further 7221 Craig Duxbury returned to Bradshaw at the beginning of August after an academic year spent in Germany, went out to bat at Walkden, and hit 150, the season's highest by an amateur. That was followed by 51 against Farnworth and 74 at Astley Bridge, not bad going for someone lacking match practice! Amongst all these batting successes, another locally-produced bowler to stand out was Dave Tattersall, who took 44 wickets at 15's on his return to Horwich following a spell at Kearsley.

For the second successive year, the 2nd Team championship was only decided on the final day of the season. Champions Little Lever had started in much the same manner in which they had ended 1996, and led the table for the first ten matches, of which they had won half. But a succession of drawn games and a heavy defeat at Horwich resulted in a slide down the table as, briefly, Egerton took over the top spot. On July 5th Bradshaw's seven-wicket win at Little Lever, in which Andy Kilner hit an unbeaten 91, saw the Rigbys club move above Egerton, and there they stayed until, with two matches remaining, they led Simon Haslam's Egerton side by 30 points. With only 11 points required for mathematical certainty and rain never very far away, it appeared to be all over. Rain did fall during those last two weekends, but not on the four crucial games. Bradshaw, faced with two tricky encounters against teams from the top half of the table, duly lost them both, to Famworth Social Circle and Greenmount.

Egerton, having disposed of Kearsley by nine wickets, went to Sharples Park on the last day and won by a similar margin, thanks to a century stand between Johnny Mills and Mike Booth. It was Egerton's first title at either first or second team level, and it owed much to the side's four leading batsmen, Graham Firth, Mills, Booth and Nigel Barlow, who jointly hit over 2,000 runs. Richard Smith was the League's leading wicket-taker, and his 74 came at only twelve runs each, as did Gary Eckersley's 43.

Beyond a shadow of doubt, though, the individual star in second team cricket in 1997 was Horwich's Derek White. Indeed, had there been an award for the 2nd Team Player-of-the-Year, Derek would almost certainly have completed a family double with brother David. His 1,151 runs were roughly 400 more than any other batsman in the League and, following Roy Costello and Tim Calderbank last season, he becomes only the third player to achieve the 1,000-run feat within living memory. His run-tally included two centuries and eight 50's, during two of which he reached 91 and 99.

Two other batsmen exceeded 700 runs, League Prize-winner Paul Atherton of Westhoughton, and Heaton's Stephen Butcher, whilst for Little Lever, Donald Heyes topped the averages with 132.3 from eleven innings which included a judicious sprinkling of red-inkers, a wise habit he shared with Heaton's Paul Mort. As a result Paul finished with the slightly inflated average of 42, but would have been much more satisfied with his 69 wickets. Greenmount's Alan Holt was the League's most successful bowler in terms of averages. He took 71 wickets at just nine apiece and won the League Bowling Prize.

There are those who hold the view that, in recent times, second team cricket has suffered a drop in standard. In some areas they may well be right, but if anyone did need their faith restoring, then Little Lever on Birtwistle Cup Final day was the place to be. A very big crowd saw a memorable game, some fine cricket in every department, and a finish with just one over remaining that was worthy of any cup final. Gary Filling's 65 provided the foundations of Little Lever's 212 for 9, with Singleton and Kerrigan giving good early support.

Paul Mort bowled beautifully for the visitors, Heaton, his 7 for 75 earning him a well-merited Man-of-the-Match Award. Heaton began badly, quickly losing Butcher and Arif, but James Holt, partnered in turn by Mark Mort (31) and Tim Calderbank (49), kept his side on course with an excellent 64. With overs fast running out, however, and Heaton seemingly falling behind the required rate, it was Nigel Smith, with a combination of textbook and manufactured shots, who won the game with a timely and undefeated 37, to give Heaton a third Birtwistle success in the space of four years.

As any self-respecting knock-out tournament should, the Nouvelle Hamer Cup competition saved the best until last. The first round found bowlers very much in control, with runs so much at a premium that Tim Hooper and Patrick Holder were the only two batsmen to exceed 50, and they only did so by one run. Horwich, the one batting side to give their bowlers something to defend, hit 189, and bowled Farnworth out for 169 thanks to 6 for 83 from Grant Long. Rod Estwick's 5 for 45 at Little Lever saw Westhoughton home by 37 runs, whilst former Little Lever bowler Simon Ainsworth, now at Bradshaw, took 8 for 41 as Heaton were dismissed for 110. In spite of Sainsbury's 5 for 25, Bradshaw were guided to a two-wicket win by their professional Sajid Shah to provide the only close finish of the round. Astley Bridge lost their way at home to Greenmount. They collapsed to an all-out 74, and 40 from skipper Andy Skinner made an eight-wicket win little more than a formality. The low-scoring trend continued at Egerton, where the eventual cup-winners had Crouch, Hornby and Harper to thank for making light of Walkden's batting power. 103 was Egerton's final target, and although Harper, O'Rourke and Stafford went cheaply, Tim Barry and Keith Hornby knocked off the balance of the required runs.

The main talking point of the round was provided by Eagley, whose 8-wicket victory at Farnworth Social Circle was subsequently ruled to be null and void. Due to an oversight, their Australian amateur, Paul Donohoe, had been selected for the game without having fulfilled the conditions of the rule which required him, as a newcomer, to have played in two previous league matches. Ironically, Donohoe himself had played no part worth mentioning in Eagley's win. The two sides were directed to replay the tie, and Circle made the most of their reprieve, winning by eleven runs in spite of a fine 93 from Dirkie DeVos in reply to the Farnworth side's 228 for 6.

The eventual result was particularly hard on Steve Powers and Paul Whitelegg who, in the aborted match had taken 5 for 20 and hit an unbeaten 45 respectively. The 'reward' for the winners was to be drawn away to Tonge, where, three weeks previously, they had been bundled out for 38 by Ian Taylor!

In the event, the 2nd Round ties were thrown into disarray by rain, with only the games at Kearsley and Horwich starting on the due date. Kearsley built on a big opening partnership between Davies and White to reach 211 for 4, and moved into the semi-final on Monday evening when Westhoughton's reply ended on 198 for 9, 126 of them having come from Estwick, Holder and Banabhai. Egerton managed to complete their win at Horwich on the Sunday, when a stand between Keith Homby (64 not out) and Anthony Clegg (66) dominated a total of 203 for 5. After a less than convincing start, Horwich never really got to grips with things, and once Grant Long had gone for 24, the game fizzled out with the home batsmen giving a good impression of a side stitching a game. Perhaps no-one had mentioned that it was a cup-tie!

At Tonge, Simon Anderton's 67 was the highlight of the home side's 212 for 9, a total never threatened by a considerably weakened Farnworth Social Circle team, whilst down the road at Bradshaw, their tie against Greenmount was decided by an innings of authority from Neil Johnson, described to me by a former Rigbys player as the best Hamer Cup innings he had ever seen by a Bradshaw batsman. Greenmount finished on 216 for 8, with Keith Webb's 72 and 44 apiece from Chee Quee and Downton the major contributions, and when Bradshaw replied, Johnson and David Morris fairly raced away, putting on 106 for the first- wicket, of which Morris hit only 33. The final evening's session, however, was played out on a wicket that had changed in character and Johnson needed to be much more painstaking as he piloted Bradshaw to a sixwicket win with nine balls remaining. He ended on 118 not out, the highlight of his impressive season, and the only Hamer Cup century of the year.

His club's interest in the competition came to an end, however, in the semifinal at Tonge. The home side hit 206 for 8, a total to which almost all the batsmen contributed, and once again Simon Ainsworth bowled well, taking 5 for 81 from 21 overs. Neil Johnson's good form continued with a careful 61, and Paul Jackson added 42, but once they had gone, the Bradshaw challenge subsided, and eventually ended 20 short of the target. In the other semi-final at Kearsley, Egerton's opening pair virtually decided the match in the first couple of hours or so. Harper hit 68 on the ground where he had learned his cricket, and O'Rourke 71, in an opening stand of 146, leaving Kearsley with an eventual target of 219. However their hopes and aspirations were gradually destroyed, first by Colin Crouch, who, although wicketless, conceded only a dozen runs from his ten overs, and finally by Hornby (7 for 72) and skipper Tim Barry, whose 3 for 34 came from 14 accurate overs. Wickets fell regularly and the end came with 90 runs the difference.

The Final was played at Astley Bridge, where, once again, Egertons opening pair were to exert a major influence on the outcome. But first it was Tonge's turn, and they got away to the worst possible start when Matthew Bode hit his own wicket from Stuart Hornby's first delivery. Curiously enough, considering the excellent season he enjoyed statistically, Bode's three Hamer Cup innings amounted to just nine runs. Garner and Anderton put 93 on for the second wicket, but with Hornby and Barry (4 for 57) bowling their joint 42 overs at almost exactly three an over, a really big total was never going to materialise. Hornby took 5 for 73, with John Dudley backing him up superbly behind the wicket.

When O'Rourke and Harper had reached 92 without being unduly troubled, words like 'plain' and 'sailing' must have been springing to some people's minds. But then wickets began to fall as Tonge struck back. Bode bowled a good, tight spell, and eventually Egerton were left with only Anthony Clegg standing between Tonge and an unlikely victory. He responded well, and had made an unbeaten 27 when the final over arrived with three runs needed. Sikander bowled a rare full-toss to Johnny Sharples, the ball disappeared through extra-cover, and Egerton were home by four wickets. Mike O'Rourke was adjudged Man-of-the-Match, possibly just ahead of Stuart Hornby, and the Astley Bridge club, too, was adjudged a total success for the excellence of the arrangements on the day.

The inter-league team's programme began at Farnworth, where the visitors were the Saddleworth League in Round One of the M.E.N. Trophy competition. From the moment when Ian Taylor claimed his first wicket with the second ball of the game, the Bolton side were in total control. Taylor finished with 3 for 11 from his nine overs, and Mike Crookson took 3 for 31 as the Saddleworth League crumbled to 128 all out. Debutant Matthew Parkinson distinguished himself in the field before taking the final wicket of the innings. After the tea-interval David Smith and Stephen Davies gave just a hint of things to come later in the competition by adding 57 for the first wicket, after which White and Berry took Bolton to the brink of victory with a 4th-wicket stand of 36.

For the friendly against the Manchester Association played at Kearsley, the selectors used only four of the successful M.E.N. side, taking the opportunity to have a look at some of the players on the fringes of the team. One of these, Simon Thomson, took his chance in no uncertain way, holding the Bolton innings together after three wickets had gone cheaply. He hit 69, and after his dismissal a handy partnership between David Parkinson and Stuart Homby took the final total to 169, which, as things turned out, was just about enough.

For once in 1997, Stuart Hornby had an off-day with the ball, and in spite of the Parkinson brothers conceding only 20 runs from a joint 20 overs, the Association managed to play themselves back into the game, arriving at a position from which only 31 runs were needed from the last six overs with seven wickets standing. But the Egerton pair of Tim Barry and Matthew Cuff bowled beautifully. Only 21 came from those final half dozen overs and, backed up by some outstanding fielding, they took a further six wickets to win the game by nine runs. Rick Northrop was another who looked the part, keeping wicket with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of efficiency.

One of the main strengths of our inter-league side over the past couple of years has been the added range of talented opening batsmen our selectors have had at their disposal. David Smith, Craig Duxbury, Stephen Davies and Nigel Partington have, more often than not, got the side away to the kind of start that makes the rest of the job easy. In last year's M.E.N. semi-final at Denton West, Smith and Davies made the job so easy, in fact, that the other nine batsmen were even spared the journey out to the middle!

The Lancashire County League hit 199 for 7 in their 48 overs, with Taylor and David Smith each taking a couple of wickets, although it was John Smith who proved the most economical, going for only 14 runs from his ten overs. The reply from David Smith (94) and Stephen Davies (76), 200 for 0 with half a dozen overs remaining, was quite superb, and may well be a record for the competition. Whilst it was all happening, I was driving home from Birmingham, and as I passed through Cheshire, a news-flash from the GMR Sports Desk announced that the Bolton League were 90 for no wicket chasing 200. 'That's alright, then,' I thought, 'we should win by five or six wickets'. Oh ye of little faith!

The Trinity Cup match was played at Little Lever, and was won comfortably by the League. Neil Bannister played well in the early part of the Association's innings, and Edgworth's John Hopkins was largely responsible for taking the final total to 137, after they had collapsed to 93 for 9. David White took 4 for 22, and just managed to get to the wicket in time to clinch the Man-of-the-Match Award with an unbeaten 21 which culminated in a towering six to win the game. Previously Brad Hodge (63) and Stephen Davies (23) had virtually sealed the game for the League with a 2nd-wicket stand of 98.

In truth, one man decided the destination of the M.E.N. Trophy in the Eagley Final against the Northern League. Sadly, the man concerned was not a Bolton League player, even though he once had been. Terry Hunte's matchwinning innings of 111 was quite simply as good as it gets in league cricket. As long as he was in control, the Northern League were winning - had he gone at any point in the reply up to, say, 180, then the Bolton League would surely have won.

Bolton's 235 for 7 was largely a team effort, based primarily on a 4th-wicket stand of 80 between Paul Berry (63) and David White (42). David Smith scored 30, Tim Barry 35 from 31 balls, and, at the end of the innings, Tim Wallwork and Matt Parkinson conjured up a rapid little unbroken stand of 29. At 150 for 2, the Northern League were well on the way to victory, but Hunte was finally dismissed at 214, and when two further quick wickets fell leaving the reply on 223 for 8, the local side was back in with an outside chance. Then came a run-out attempt which, in loftier circles, would have had the umpire making signals to the pavilion. But the batsman was given the benefit, and a few minutes later it was all over. The Northern League had deservedly won a memorable Final with two wickets and ten balls to spare, and Eagley, as host club, had done the League proud.

The draw for the Thwaites LCB Knock-out Trophy was particularly unkind towards the Bolton League, decreeing as it did that Tonge and Westhoughton should meet in Round One, and Kearsley and Famworth, provided they survived, in Round Two. Survive they did. It was help-yourself time for the neighbouring clubs, who between them, amassed 715 runs! Farnworth played a weakened Shaw C.C. and hit 343 for 5, Ben Johnson scoring 118 not out, the first of his two Thwaites centuries, and Brad Hodge 115. Nick Sutton remained unbeaten on 62, and Gary Tonge's 3 for 4 was mainly responsible for Shaw's 108 all out.

Kearsley fared even better, gorging themselves against Broughton to the tune of 372 for 6, with Paul Berry reaching 170, Dublin 90 and White 60. Terry Southworth's 6 for 20 effectively ended the game with Broughton a little matter of 252 in arrears! These were just two of several such mismatches in 1997, and during the winter the L.C.B. re-organised the competition, splitting the various leagues into two sections, roughly divided between those leagues with professionals, and those without.

After various problems had been ironed out, one of which involved a change of venue, Kearsley played at Farnworth in an evening game. The visitors ran up 281 for 5, of which Craig Lavelle hit 78 not out and Paul Berry 46 and a spirited Famworth reply came to a halt on 210 for 7, with Johnson scoring 125 and Stephen Davies adding 3 for 52 to his 38.

Westhoughton, meanwhile, had overcome Tonge in Round One by the surprisingly easy margin of nine wickets. The Castle Hill side's final total of 167 for 9 was largely thanks to a rescue act from Jon Partington, who rattled up 58 in the second half of the innings, with Gary Gamer's 42 the only other real contribution. Rod Estwick and Stuart Harrison each took three wickets, Estwick's at less than two runs per over. After Steve Parker had gone for 28, Rick Sellers (61) and Ian Pilkington (53) knocked off the remainder of the runs with the best part of four overs unbowled.

Kearsley's progress ended in self-destruction at the hands of Ashton-on-Mersey. Chasing a fairly modest 147, Kearsley arrived at the last over needing three runs with three wickets in hand. Sadly, those wickets went in the space of three balls, one of them to a run-out, giving some foretaste of the fate awaiting Westhoughton in their quarter-final. Mike Crookson's side, having comfortably disposed of Wythenshawe in Round Two, travelled to Widnes for the third round. This time Rick Parker was the hero, edging his team home with an unbeaten 56, and sharing late partnerships with Harrison, Crookson and Bentham as they moved to the target of 174. But it all went wrong in the quarter-final. Vemon Carus reached 178, and after a poor start, Ian Pilkington's 56 and 33 from Estwick put Westhoughton in with a good chance. 46 more runs were needed from the final 10 overs, but from then until the end, cricket-sense went out of the window, and mass suicide took over. Three run-outs tells its own story, the last one from a chancy single with two and a half overs remaining and only two runs required for a place in the semi-final. Their only consolation came at the end of the season with the knowledge that third place in the table will ensure them of another opportunity in 1998, when, hopefully, they will remember the ground rules concerning running between the wickets!

As the season drew to its close, Greenmount won the jubilee Trophy for the second time. This set me thinking, and a quick count in the League Handbook reveals that, since joining the League 14 years ago, the names of Farnworth Social Circle and Greenmount jointly appear in the various lists of trophy-winners and runners-up no fewer than 63 times! If we'd known that when we started we'd probably never have let them in!!

An under-strength Egerton team probably surprised themselves by repeating the Hamer Cup success against Tonge in a nail-biting semi-final, when runs from Firth, Mills, Sharples and Clegg saw their side home on the last ball. In the other semi-final Heaton hit 122 for 8 against the eventual winners with role- reversals the order of the day. Rod Slater hit 48, Gary Chadwick took 3 for 21, and when Greenmount batted, it was Mark Stewart who took the batting honours with an undefeated 47.

Egerton couldn't keep their momentum going in the Final and, batting first, ended their innings on 94 for 6. Keith Welib's excellent 49 not out eased Greenmount home by seven wickets, and made Match Adjudicator Arthur Crook's task a comparatively easy one. The day, and indeed, the season, ended on a pleasant note with presentations to jack Price, who in 1997 completed 50 years as an umpire, having officiated at almost all of the jubilee Final days. As ever, Little Lever's organisational expertise resulted in yet another successful day all round.

Bradshaw's third Indoor title was a genuine team triumph, with each of the seven members of their squad rising to the occasion at some point or other in the wins over Greenmount, Eagley, Egerton, and, in the Final, Little Lever. David Morris's side comprised Neil Johnson, Atesh Patel, Chris Evans, Simon Ainsworth Mark Gwilt and Myles Cunliffe. Along with Little Lever, they went along to contest the North West Finals at Old Trafford, where both clubs eventually lost to Haslingden, Little Lever in the semi-final, Bradshaw in the Final by 17 runs, with David Morris's run-out from the first ball of his side's innings almost certainly a crucial factor. Once again we are grateful to Tony Axford for the generous sponsorship of a well-organised indoor competition which is the envy of other leagues.

The radical change in the points system adopted in 1997 seemed to have worked reasonably well and was generally accepted as having been a success. One justifiable complaint was that not enough points were allocated for matches ending in a tie. In previous seasons two points, a third of the number awarded for a win, had been on offer ~ last season's four points only amounted to a fifth of those for a win, and so in 1998 sides involved in a tie will be rewarded by seven points each, as near to a third of 20 as it is possible to achieve.

An important innovation outside the League in 1997 was the formation of the C.L.C.L., the Confederation of Lancashire Cricket Leagues, which has already met on several occasions at Haslingden. It was founded at the outset to present a united front against the original concept of the Premier League, seen by the leagues as a threat to their infrastructure and traditions. At some point in the future, once the politics have been put to one side, the C.L.C.L. will become a significant conference at which representatives can discuss, compare and, hopefully alleviate some of the particular problems with which their leagues may be faced.

An important and welcome item of news concerning the Bolton League arrived in early December, when Farnworth Social Circle were informed that they had been successful in their application to the National Lottery for a grant which, in all, will benefit the club by somewhere in the region of £150,000. Their officials, in particular John Hutchinson and Nigel Howard, are to be congratulated on their accomplishment. It involved many hours of hard work, and hopefully, the fruits of their labours will become apparent in the form of extra and improved facilities at Piggott Park which will be completed at some point during the coming season.

Another first for the League was the establishment of a School of Excellence which will involve some of our more talented junior players, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors Fort James Ltd. By the time this Handbook is printed, the event will already have taken place in the form of a weekend of intensive coaching, lectures and discussions hosted by some of the top names in the fields of coaching and youth cricket development. The course itself will be held at Rivington & Blackrod High School and at the Post House Hotel, where the participants will be in residence for the duration of the event.

This is the 25th 'Looking Back' article that I have written for the League Handbook. Looking back to the first of them, I find that I was paying tribute to Arthur Crook on his resignation as League Secretary, welcoming Cec Wright as Astley Bridge's new professional, looking forward to the new Watney Mann Inter-League competition, and congratulating Tonge on their championship success which, on reflection, is where this year's piece started, a dozen or so pages back.

In those days, of course, there were no sponsors to thank. They first appeared in 1984 along with Greenmount, Farnworth Social Circle and, if anyone can remember it, the Bolton League Cricket Floodlit Trophy, played on the ground of the late, lamented Horwich R.M.I. Football Club. Over the years since then my problem has been to find a different way each year to express the League's gratitude to all our benefactors. It has become repetitive, to say the least, so this year, to Fred Elmore and Tony Axford for the Indoor, to Farnworth, Astley Bridge, Eagley and Little Lever for their staging of our big games, and, once again, to Fort James Ltd, just a simple and heartfelt Thank You.