A FRUSTRATING wait for ground number 99 eventually ends with a first trip to Royton Cricket Club, another ground in an unexpected place. Presumably the ground was there long before the housing estate that now covers much of the surrounding area.

An impressive clubhouse sits atop a little hill which means batsmen have to negotiate 40 or 50 steps down to the field – one heck of a trek for a first baller.

The scorebox on the far side of the ground sits above the equipment hut and is reached via a dodgy dark staircase. Positioned well, the only problem is the relatively new windows again obscure parts of the ground if you open them – do clubs ever consider the scorers when they build scoreboxes?

Sadly, what is to be a regular occurrence for this summer, a torrential downpour, sees the game abandoned and the scorers with a long, wet paddle back to the clubhouse.

The Bolton League's T20 competition allows me to tick off the magical 100th ground and start on the quest for 150 as I manage to score at both Bradshaw and Eagley for the first time.

I have heard lots of stories about the box at Bradshaw – and they prove correct.

The Rigbys has rightly got a reputation for being one of the more picturesque grounds in the area, but it has got to be one of the most difficult places to score at.

Sitting with maybe 60 per cent or more of the ground completely out of view as the scorers share a tiny window to look out of is not an ideal situation.

It is not as bad as Barnton in Cheshire, though, where around 80 per cent of the ground is invisible to the scorers depending on where on the square the game is played.

The contrast between Eagley on the Friday and ground 102 on my list, Wokingham, on the Sunday can scarcely be greater with all due respect to Eagley.

Think of Westhoughton's new ground and double it, add state-of-the-art tennis courts and a two-storey clubhouse and you have Wokingham.

Opened in 2012, the multi million pound facility has electronic scoreboards on both grounds and everything you could wish for.

The scoring room has to be one of the most comfortable and luxurious club ones I have scored in with a fantastic view of the ground, although the electronic scoreboard stubbornly refuses to reflect whatever we enter.

Sadly the pitch does not match the surroundings, and, with three T20 games on the same track during the day, deteriorates match by match to such a degree that the toss ends up dictating the winners.

And the teas are not a patch on most of the Bolton League clubs' either.

On the field Lancashire Women beat Kent – Charlotte Edwards et-al – much to the disgust of the rather patronising women's cricket press who do not believe women's cricket exists outside the South East before losing to Berkshire.

Having met at Old Trafford at 8am we get back at 11.30pm and then I have the drive home. A long day.

Widnes is our next port of call, and ground 103. The ground far exceeds my expectations – my preconception of the area completely blown away by an impressive ground, although the clubhouse might be a little tired.

The scorers are housed in a room barely bigger than a broom cupboard which is tacked onto the side of the home changing room, with an electronic box of tricks to operate the scoreboard taking up more than half the desk space.

The three games all go to the wire and all three counties win a game each. Notts beat Lancashire Women in the first game, Middlesex beat Notts and we beat Middlesex.