ORGANISERS of the Bolton Hospital Cup this week paid tribute to Bolton Wanderers in giving the competition a tremendous boost.

Confirmation has been received that for the second year running the final will be held at the Reebok Stadium.

The agreed date will be Tuesday May 14th. The impact of this announcement has been high and instantaneous.

A spokesman for the organising committee explains: "As soon as word got around that the Wanderers had agreed to support the competition to this degree again teams were phoning in asking how they could enter. Such was the response we immediately made the decision to up the starting field from eight to 16. Even so we have a waiting list of clubs trying to get in.

"We have to do it on a first-come-first-seved basis. We have just been inundated this week. The priority is to have a top class tournament for the clubs and if we opened up the competition beyond the 16 this year we may be asking for trouble.

All this is down to Bolton Wanderers. But for them offering the Reebok we would have been phoning around virtually begging people to put their teams in and we may even not have got the eight this year. Now the Wanderers have kicked the Hospital Cup back to being what it used to be, the premier end of season competition that everyone looks forward to.

"The excitement and anticipation is incredible already and we are quietly confident that this is going to be the best Hospital Cup we have ever seen. That means we could break all records in the monies raised for charity. What we have decided to do is donate the entire cash collection to the chosen Bolton Wanderers charity for this season.

"With such a tremendous prize awaiting the lucky finalists there will be a buzz about every game that has perhaps never been equalled before."

Teams: Atherton Colls, Atherton LR, Atherton Town (holders), Blackrod Town (runners up), Bolton County, Bolton Wanderers Vets, Breightmet United, Daisy Hill, Eagley, Elton Fold, Rivington, Ramsbottom Utd, Stoneclough, Tempest Utd, Turton, Walkden.