NICK Chamberlain continues to delve into the Bolton Association history books, this week looking at the league's all-time best wicketkeepers.

An accurate record of Bolton Association's most successful wicketkeepers is impossible to ascertain as some will have taken outfield catches, thus skewing the figures.

But for the purpose of this article I have extracted details of any catches taken by recognised keepers in league and cup games.

The Association handbooks over the years have been an inestimable source of information, but this is one area where it appears to have fallen short.

The most victims – 401 – are recorded as belonging to Stan Appleton, of Horwich RMI, with a total of 225 stumpings and 176 catches.

This relates to league games only in 17 seasons up to 1936, when his club joined the Bolton Cricket League.

This fact has been diligently recorded in every Association handbook since 1950 until being dropped from the 1988 version.

I have been able to isolate a further 33 catches in Cross Cup games giving a grand total of 434.

One of the pleasures of this series is amending records that have stood for many years unopposed.

It quickly became clear that more than one player had exceeded Appleton's record mark.

Appleton won the league's wicketkeeping prize five times between 1928 and 1934, equalled by Miles Barlow, of East Lancs Paper Mill, between 1937 and 1944.

Terry Halliwell took the accolade four times in the 1960s, twice with Atherton and twice with Edgworth.

But Cliff Westby, of Daisy Hill, topped the lot with eight prize wins from 1981 to 1996.

Barlow held the season record with 43 victims in 1940, losing this record to J R Gradwell (Tootals Sports Club) with 46 victims and most stumpings – 27 – in 1951.

But these have been surpassed by Anthony Harris (Walshaw) with 53 in 2000 and Chris Sanderson (Blackrod) with 60 in 2005.

The first challenger to Appleton’s crown must be Terry Halliwell who caught 476 and stumped 118 victims (594) in spells at Atherton and Edgworth between 1953 and 1980.

Longevity is the name of the game as the years 1974 to 1993 saw Rod Charnock crouched behind the stumps for Adlington.

In that time he captured 453 victims – 411 catches and 42 stumpings – way behind Halliwell but also probably eclipsing Appleton’s league record.

John Norris, of Darcy Lever, is close behind with 437 – 323 catches and 114 stumpings.

Westby was another player who served one club with distinction.

The record surely belongs to the Daisy Hill wicketkeeper, who accumulated 709 victims in an 18-year career with the village club.

This is made up of 508 catches and 201 stumpings.

Westby is also one of four wicketkeepers to have taken seven victims in a single innings.

He took five catches and two stumpings in 1986, Halliwell took four catches and three stumpings in 1964, Harry Clare recorded seven catches in one innings for Daisy Hill in 1971, and Mick Flatters took three catches and four stumpings for Adlington in 2004.

Mickey Dunn, of Little Hulton, also achieved this feat in an inter-league fixture in 1980, when he took seven catches.

Unfortunately, the limits of this article rule out details of others but the following have all claimed in excess of 300 victims.

Flatters, Harris and Ian Nuttall (Atherton) were all recorded with one club while Nigel Geary assisted both Standish and Spring View.

Robert Clews reached the mark but I wonder if readers would be able to name the clubs he represented?

Other splendid glove men such as Mickey Dunn and David McIlwraith (Farnworth Social Circle) don’t make the list due to the shorter number of seasons played in the Association.

blob If you can name the clubs Clews kept wicket for, email boltonsport@nqnw.co.uk