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EDGWORTH begin their campaign to retain the Bolton Association title when the local cricket season gets underway tomorrow.

The village side have kept the same team together which kept their nerve and consistency to overcome five serious title challengers in a thrilling run-in.

They open with a home game against a strong-looking Daisy Hill side who proved capable of beating anyone on their day last season.

They have a new pro in Naeem Ashraf, a 23-year-old all-rounder who plays for Karachi Whites in Pakistan, but have otherwise kept a similar side to last year.

Guy Haynes, who captained Edgworth to last season's title and leads the team again this year, said: "It's going to be interesting and we'll be doing our best to challenge again.

"We've got exactly the same team and pro, and I'll be reminding them about how hard we had to work last season to achieve what we did."

The Association, who start a week before the Bolton League, have increased their number to 14 teams with the addition of Flixton.

The new club begin with a testing home game against perennial high-flyers Walshaw who will be hoping the youngsters who did so well for them last season will continue to improve.

The Bury club have lost two key players in pro Vinit Indulkar and Jason Whittaker, who has gone to Alderley Edge to ensure he can keep playing for Cheshire for whom he played at Lord's in the Minor Counties League Final last season. Former pro Jonathan Fielding returns to the club in his old role.

Flixton will have Yasir Arafat from St Albans stepping in as deputy pro before former Association player, Faisal Aafreedi, takes up the job next week. The new boys are looking forward to playing at a higher standard of opposition after leaving the Manchester Association.

Club official Dave Connor said: "We had the best facilities and ground in the Manchester Association but, playing-wise, it is going to be a big step up.

"New players wouldn't come to play in the Manchester Association, so we knew we had to play in a good league and that's what we've done. We know it's going to be a steep learning curve. We hope to get used to the quality for the first couple of seasons and then start to challenge. A mid-table finish would be a good season."

Spring View are expected to be a major challengers for honours, especially with new pro Bazid Khan in their ranks.

He is one of four players to move from Standish to their Wigan rivals, who still expect him to join them next week despite him having become a regular in the Pakistan team.

Khan scored 51 against Bangladesh on Wednesday and is set to play in the Twenty/20 clash between the two countries on Sunday before flying to England to take up his pro role at View, who will have Eagley's Australian veteran Michael O'Rourke filling in for tomorrow's game, which has been moved to Atherton because of ongoing ground work at Spring View.

Elton, who won the title in 2004 and 2006, will be intending to challenge again with new pro Stephen Holt having joined from Radcliffe and Dexter Fitton captaining the side.

Little Hulton are another team looking to challenge after bringing in four new players, including pro Raheel Majeed.

Due to late arrivals of pros from Pakistan and the West Indies, Astley and Tyldesley will have Karl Brown from Milnrow in place of David Bernard, while Daisy will have Royton's Luke Proctor in place of Atif Ali Zaidi.

FIXTURES: Adlington v Standish; Astley & Tyldesley v Little Hulton; Darcy Lever v Blackrod; Edgworth v Daisy Hill; Flixton v Walshaw; Golborne v Elton; Spring View v Atherton.

10:56pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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