20 YEARS AGO

PHIL Neal’s Wanderers ended the Eighties in high spirits after successive victories over Blackpool and Bury lifted them to fourth in the Third Division.

They would kick off the new year with a tough trip to Prenton Park for a showdown with promotion rivals Tranmere, but after the impressive fashion in which they ended 1989, the Whites feared no one.

This was the era in which, financially at least, Bury put Wanderers in the shade as they tapped into the wealth of their major shareholder Hugh Eaves.

But the Shakers had no answer to two-goal David Reeves, who spearheaded a thrilling 3-1 victory at Burnden Park that earned Neal the bragging rights over Gigg Lane chief Sam Ellis.

Coming on the back of their Boxing Day win at Blackpool, this was a big result for Wanderers, who treated their biggest league crowd for six years — 10,628 — to a breathtaking, all-action performance.

Bury winger David Lee was almost unplayable in the early stages but Reeves struck twice in two minutes to put Wanderers in the driving seat.

Tony Cunningham’s physical presence paved the way for Liam Robinson to pull one back for Bury on 34 minutes but Stuart Storer restored Wanderers’ two-goal advantage nine minutes into the second half, and that was how it remained.

Ellis, who saw his Shakers beaten for the third game in a row, was generous and honest in defeat. “No complaints,” the Bury boss said. “We were beaten by a better side on the day.”

Four North West sports personalities were rewarded in the New Year Honours List, which was published on New Year’s Eve.

Manchester United captain Bryan Robson received the OBE, Wigan RL captain Ellery Hanley and Lancashire cricketer Jack Simmons were awarded MBEs and Liverpool chairman John Smith was knighted.

Bolton’s three-time world snooker champion John Spencer was elected to one of the top jobs in his sport when he was named as the new chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

World number one and red-hot favourite Eric Bristow crashed out of the British Open darts championship in London, where he was beaten by little-known London B player Charlie Holdaway 3-1 in the fourth round.

30 YEARS AGO

THE Seventies had produced some of the most exciting times for Bolton Wanderers fans, who saw their heroes rise from the relative obscurity of the Third Division back to top-flight football.

But the decade ended on a miserable note with Ian Greaves’s side rooted to the bottom of the First Division and showing all the signs of a team destined for relegation.

The only saving grace in a 2-0 defeat at Southampton — an 11th successive away defeat — was the performance of goalkeeper Jim McDonagh, without whom the scoreline would have been an embarrassment.

There was no evidence at The Dell of the never-say-die attitude of recent performances that had raised hopes of a revival in the second half of the season. In fact the performance was so lacking in spirit that after a Phil Boyer shot and Mick Channon penalty had fired Southampton up to a flattering third in the league, Saints’ manager Lawrie McMenemy saw fit to accuse the Bolton players of letting the club down.

“They could have given a lot more,” McMenemy said.

Next up for the beleaguered Wanderers was a trip to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United side on top form and brimming with confidence after beating Arsenal 3-0 — the key being Ray Wilkins winning the battle for midfield supremacy against Liam Brady.

Off-spinners Peter Willey and John Emburey bowled England to an easy 138-run victory over Queensland on the last day of a four-day match in Brisbane as the tourists warmed up for the second Ashes Test against Australia.

45 YEARS AGO

DONALD Campbell ended 1964 by becoming the first man to set world land and water speed records in the same year.

Campbell skimmed his jet-powered Bluebird across the waters of Lake Dumbleyong, near Perth in Western Australia, at a new world mark of 276.3mph five months after setting the land speed record of 403.1mph on Lake Eyre’s salt flats in Central Australia.

It was a particularly poignant moment for the Brit, coming on the 16th anniversary of the death of his father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, who once held the two world records.

Snow was playing havoc with sporting fixtures in Britain and Bolton Wanderers were one of the victims when they had a wasted journey to Northampton, where their Second Division fixture was one of a number of late postponements.

Thousands of Bolton fans arrived at the ground to find the match had been called off by the referee and their anger was fuelled by Northampton club officials claiming the pitch — covered in an inch of snow — was playable.

Days earlier, Wanderers’ home match against Northampton — a drab scoreless draw — was marred by a mini-pitch invasion after the final whistle, during which spectators clashed with police and referee Payne was forced to run for cover.

The fans’ wrath was directed at the Sheffield official after Burnden Park favourite Francis Lee was effectively kicked out of the game by tough-tackling Northampton left-back Cockerill.

Nevertheless, it was the second pitch invasion of its kind at Burnden and the club was expecting a rap from the Football Association.

Three British footballers — Manchester United forwards Bobby Charlton and Denis Law and Glasgow Rangers half-back Jim Baxter — were named in the Best European Xl by an international end-of-year poll of 23 football writers from 13 countries. England were placed last of the five nominated international teams, behind Spain, the Soviet Union, Hungary and Italy.

In Johannesburg, Colin Bland hit an unbeaten 144 — his highest score in Test cricket — to help South Africa fight a successful rearguard action to frustrate England in the second Test.

Ted Dexter and Ken Barrington hit centuries as England posted a commanding 531 in their first innings and the Springboks started the final day on 146-4 in their second innings — still needing 68 to make England bat again. But the tourists’ hopes of victory were thwarted by some stubborn batting and a series of interruptions for bad light. At stumps on the final day the hosts had reached 336-6 — 122 runs ahead.