WHEN it comes to supporting local sport in Bolton you would have to go a long way to beat the Axford family.

Anthony Axford and his son Martin have helped keep sports clubs and leagues in existence and develop over the years through their vital financial support.

The respect within sport in this town for the family who have a long-established timber merchants business in Farnworth is enormous.

And so it should be.

While not wishing to fill this editorial space with advertising words for the Axfords, it is nigh impossible not to be gushing in praise for their backing of local sport, particularly cricket.

They sponsor both the major leagues in town – the Bolton Cricket League and the Bolton and District Cricket Association. Anthony – better known asTony – was a major figure in helping Bolton Cricket Club for many years and sponsored Bolton School's cricket team for around 30 years.

The couple of hundred or so teams who take part in The Bolton News annual Naps competition can thank Martin for stumping up the £500 prize every year since it started about 15 years ago, and they have had a perimeter advertisement at Bolton Wanderers every year since the Whites moved to their current ground at Middlebrook.

I got a taste of the gratitude people in local cricket have for the Axfords when I met groundsman David Morris and his assistant Derek Kay at Bradshaw Cricket Club a couple of years ago.

The meeting was to set up a weekly summer groundsman column for The Bolton News' grassroots sport supplement 'Your Sport' which goes in the paper every Tuesday.

Derek, whose recent death at the age 60 stunned the local cricket scene, had other ideas, however.

After the arrangements had been made for the column Derek – a man steeped in Bolton League cricket for most of his life – turned the conversation to something far more important to him.

He insisted I made sure that every time we wrote about the Bolton League or Association we put the name Anthony Axford before it.

In giving me the reasons he told me how much the Axfords have put into the League over the years.

The figure was breathtaking. And then you could reasonably add a similar figure for the Association.

When you think how many cricket clubs struggle for money it is safe to assume that without the Axford sponsorship money amateur cricket in this town would be a lot worse off.

Derek, whose funeral is tomorrow, certainly thought so with a passion.

You can listen to what Martin thinks about local cricket and the proposed Greater Manchester Cricket League which could potentially see the Bolton League and Association – sorry Derek, the Anthony Axford Bolton League and the Anthony Axford Bolton Association – go out of existence, he will be on a panel of local Bolton cricket figures discussing the subject on Bolton FM tonight between 8.30pm and 10pm, as will I.