TO take charge at Tonge after a major winter upheaval would have tested most captains, but Matt Fray, despite being the youngest skipper in the Bolton League, has risen to the challenge.

Off-field problems led to seven first-team players quitting the Castle Hill club, including former skipper Nigel Partington. That left 22-year-old Fray, last season’s vice-captain, in charge of a side that had to be thrown together at relatively short notice.

Fray is in his fourth season at Tonge after spending his junior career at Astley Bridge.

He said: “I was appointed vice-captain 18 months ago with a view to progressing to captain over the next few years, but it has come sooner than anticipated.

“But being captain is not a problem as I feel it is a natural progression after captaining school, town and interleague teams.”

It has been a tough opening to the season, however, for a club without the resources of some of its rivals and, not surprisingly, Tonge have only won one game this season, albeit a surprising success over Egerton.

Realistic Fray says the ambition is to win five or six games this season and he hopes to notch up a second victory tomorrow when they travel to Eagley – the only club without a league win this season.

“It has been a tough start,” he said. “We have not many expectations and everybody wrote us off.We lost seven of last year’s first team and brought a couple of youngsters in as there are not a lot of juniors at the club.

“Our rebuilding was hit by the loss of Paul Tong to Walkden. It took us a long time to convince him to come, so for him to walk away so quickly is a disappointment.

“But we have brought back Zaheer Khan, who moved to Heaton at the start of the season, and he will take up a lot of the bowling slack.”

Tonge’s new professional is 19-year-old Anguillan Jamal Hamilton, an Under-19s West Indies international who has played for the Leeward Islands and is an up-and-coming prospect. He is a batsman-wicketkeeper but Tonge have decided to stick with talented youngster Craig Naylor behind the timbers. Marcus Dawson, the 17-year-old who arrived from Greenmount, underlined his potential with a knock of 195 for the second team last season.

Tonge’s weaknesses were highlighted when Bradshaw’s batsmen ran riot to set a Bolton League record score of 436-4, and that is something Fray hopes his young charges will bounce back from.

He added: “Bradshaw was a sticky weekend to say the least and we have not played since so I don’t know how it has affected the young lads.

“We have always had a good team ethic and they are a good group of lads but we only have two players over the age of 23. We beat Egerton who are one of the top teams, so it proves we can beat anybody on the day.

“It is a case of finding consistency and getting people performing. It will not happen immediately with a team that has been thrown together.

“Although we have been losing they are a great bunch of lads and we go out there to try and enjoy ourselves.

“Our coach, Richard Dearden, who has returned to the club, has been with Lancashire for a long time.

“He is a cricket tutor at Myerscough College and his return has been a massive bonus.”