FOLLOWING on from Neil Bonnar’s informative article on the proposed Bolton League expansion last Saturday, it may be worth a look at the background to the proposal and what could happen in the future.

Twice in the past 10 years the League clubs have been asked to consider similar ideas and on both occasions the majority voted against change.

Support on the last occasion was so poor it was agreed such proposals would not be put forward again for three years.

During this time, the Ribblesdale League, Bolton Association and Central Lancashire League have all increased the number of clubs in their leagues but without hitting their targets of two divisions of twelve clubs.

The three year period ended around the same time representative from the various leagues in Greater Manchester were discussing the possibility of an all embracing pyramid of leagues similar to one in Leicestershire, and following a presentation at Bradshaw Cricket Club in December based on the 2014 England Cricket Board player survey, the Bolton League clubs agreed that the League should prepare its own expansion plan while retaining an active interest in the Greater Manchester discussions.

The Bolton League proposals were drafted in December and then discussed and amended by the League’s Management Committee.

Although the Bolton League’s plan was ready first, it was agreed its release would be simultaneous with the GM prospectus to give clubs the opportunity of comparing the two.

Since 2000 the Bolton League has been the dominant force in the Lancashire Knock-Out, with a superior record to even the two ‘Premier’ leagues in Lancashire, the Liverpool Competition and the Northern League.

However, with a few notable exceptions, including Westhoughton, our pitches are not of the same standard of those in some of our neighbouring leagues. Increasing the number of clubs gives the Bolton League a one-off opportunity to recruit clubs with larger and superior playing surfaces along with a number of clubs in the area to keep our identity as a ‘local’ league.

Clubs and umpires have been invited to a question and answer session at Tonge Cricket Club at 7.45pm on May 11.

Although a formal vote will not be taken, opinions expressed at the meeting will give a good indication of the feelings of the clubs. No doubt some clubs will threaten to leave the League if we don’t move to two divisions and some will threaten to leave if we do.

Certainly there will be a number of options available. Apart from the possible formation of the Greater Manchester Leagues, the Central Lancashire League will also be attempting to recruit a further six clubs to make two divisions of 12.

League Cricket Conference and Lancashire Cricket Board rules both state that if a club wished to resign from their current league, they have to do so before June 30, and some leagues have even earlier deadlines, so some big decisions have to be made in the next seven or eight weeks.

The Bolton League will not be in direct competition as even if clubs vote for expansion this will not take place until 2017, but there are rumours the Lancashire League could be moving to two divisions at the same time.

If you have looked at the first team league table, you will have noticed Kearsley have been deducted 10 points. The reason for this is towards the end of last season they failed to raise a side for three second team matches. They were given a 10 point suspended penalty, which was enforced when they were unable to field a second team last Sunday.

The matches from last Saturday will be replayed on September 6. In the past even if just one match in the first or second team had started none of the other matches could be replayed.

This has now been relaxed and unless there is a result there is an opportunity to play all the matches again.

In addition to the National KO match at Bradshaw tomorrow, Little Lever are at home to Walkden at 12.30pm in the first round of the Dixon Air Conditioning ECB t20.

The remaining first round games to be played at 6.15pm on Tuesday 12th May are: Eagley v Bradshaw, Greenmount v Farnworth SC, Horwich v Heaton,

Kearsley v Egerton and Tonge v Farnworth.