LITTLE Lever captain Jon Kerrigan admits he could walk away from cricket altogether after captaining his boyhood club to their first title since 1995.

With results elsewhere going for them, the Victory Road outfit actually clinched the title with a defeat at Walkden on Saturday, but celebrated in fine style on Sunday with a thumping win at home to Kearsley.

Anthony Hilton was the star with the bat, scoring 12 fours and a six in his 90 as the home side posted 205, before club pro Kamran Younis weighed in with 7-19 to help bowl Kearsley out for 62 and secure a 143-run victory. For Kerrigan, the overriding feeling was one of relief rather than jubilation after struggling to juggle the pressures of captaining a championship-chasing side with a young family and his own plumbing business.

His wife Heidi gave birth to their second child, Jacob, four weeks ago, and it was his long-suffering partner to whom he chose to dedicate the win.

“I would just like to thank my wife for putting up with me over these past few weeks, she has been brilliant,” said Kerrigan, who also has a two-year-old daughter, Izzabella, with Heidi.

“I am definitely looking forward to a break now, in fact I have never looked forward to the end of a season as much in my life.

“It has been hard and I think it is time to take a step back and spend more time with my family now.

“The way I feel, I will definitely retire from playing inter-league and, while this may change in three months’ time, I think that is it for me at Little Lever and with cricket all together.”

Kerrigan has revealed that, after moving his family to Bradshaw in the summer, he had decided to join the Rigbys club.

But, after a summit at Little Lever, he agreed to give it one more season.

“I don’t know exactly what changed my mind, I just felt I owed it to mates like Anthony Hilton and Simon Anderton, who I have played with for many years,” he said. “The funny thing was though that, in that meeting, after we had signed Kamran Younis as pro, I told the lads I felt we had a really good chance of winning the league.

“I was the only one in the room who thought that way, but I am glad to be proved right.”

It was Kerrigan’s first title at Little Lever after spending two spells at the club spanning 17 years, although he had won the championship previously with Tonge.

The talented batsman admits the pressure of captaincy got to him as expectations rose, but while he did not enjoy that side of the campaign, it provided a different kind of satisfaction.

“I found the whole season to be very tough and, on a personal level, it wasn’t my best,” he said.

“But it wasn’t about personal landmarks. My highlight was seeing a young lad, Adam Carter, who I had seen come through the ranks, score his maiden half century at Bradshaw and rescue a game we should have lost. That was when I knew we would win the title.

“A lot has been said and written about us being a one-man team, but we have had eight different players score 50 or more in a game.

“We have a team of match-winners, even though no player, other than our pro, gets paid.

“I don’t think any other team in this league can say that, and that is what I am really proud of.”