BETWEEN 1992 and 1995 Tonge’s second team won the championship for a then unprecedented four consecutive times. The team was built around Tony Bailey, Dave Barlow, Alan Bradbury, Ian Foster, Ste Holt, Steve Goodram and Keith Wardle.

Westhoughton over the past five seasons have gone one better with consecutive Howarth Trophy wins, and are well placed for a sixth this season.

Their domination of the past decade began with a Birtwistle Cup triumph in 2006, followed by a league championship in 2008 and unbroken success from 2010 following a near miss in 2009. The senior players include present captain Arun Pindoria, Glen Bullock, Martin Hodgkiss and Jon Partington.

During this period a number of their younger players have progressed to the first team; skipper Rob Houghton, Rob Brown, Kieran Edwards, Charlie Honour, Matt Fanning and Danny Naylor who recently represented the League’s senior team against the Central Lancashire League. Part of the Club’s success can be attributed to their third senior team which continues to provide an opportunity for promising juniors to experience the step up to senior cricket, but the Club’s extensive coaching set up, including professional Qaiser Abbass, Oliver Newby and Jon Partington is another major factor.

Westhoughton’s Glenn Bullock is one of six second team players to have scored over 250 runs before last weekend; the others bring Nigel Duxbury, Scott Martin, Siraj Patel, Aaron Rushton and Simon Woolford, while Ady Cooper and Nigel Franklyn have both hit over 300. Andrew Brooks leads the bowling with 30 wickets followed by Billy Coleman with 26 and Lee Sutton with 25.

Westhoughton will be hosting the annual second team inter-league match against the Central Lancashire League on Sunday, July 12.

Before leaving second team cricket, there is some good news for clubs. When the plans were drawn up for the Bolton League’s expansion, it was envisaged there could be a shortage of umpires which could have resulted in clubs having to provide their own for the majority of the second team matches. However, the Bolton Association officials are confident the majority of their umpires will follow their clubs into the Bolton League. In other leagues with more than one division there can be a problem matching first and second teams, leading to clubs playing up to five consecutive first or second team games home or away, a problem for many local clubs with small squares and a dependency on the bar take at first team matches to assist the cash flow. At first it was thought second teams would have to follow their firsts to avoid this situation, but Chris Higginbottom from Play-Cricket has assured us that promotion and relegation at both first and second team level will not be an issue and had offered to assist with the fixtures.

Greenmount are having an excellent season in the junior sections, leading the under-15, u13 and u11 tables. In the u15s they are level on points with Farnworth having played one game fewer and are followed in third place by Westhoughton. Greenmount’s Tom Heaton and Bridge’s Ryan Thakker have both scored over 100 runs and the leading wicket taker is Osama Amjad from Farnworth with seven. In the u13s Greenmount are level on points with Heaton, followed by Egerton and Walkden. Haaris Akhtar from Astley Bridge and Bradshaw’s Cian Dickinson have hit over 100 runs and William Jackson of Egerton and Evan Williams of Egerton have seven wickets apiece. In the Under 11s Greenmount have one point more than Bradshaw who have played one game less.