GREENMOUNT became the first club to leave the Bolton League since 1937 this week.

Several clubs have already applied to fill the vacancy, but as it appears likely – although not certain – clubs will vote to expand the Bolton League at a meeting on June 8 it was decided not to accept applications until a decision has been made.

While there are a number of quality clubs in the area, applications have also been received from outside the local leagues.

Just out of curiosity I took as a central point the Bolton end of St Peter’s way to find out the distances to a number of clubs bearing the name of towns with Football League teams.

Blackpool were the furthest at 45 minutes and Wigan the nearest at 18 minutes, with Accrington, Burnley, Preston and Rochdale all between 21 and 34 minutes.

Clubs continue to join the Greater Manchester League, and while there is little possibility of them reaching the initial target of 150 clubs, it appears there should be sufficient for three divisions plus second teams.

Once the league begins and clubs begin to enter the National Knockout and qualify for the Lancashire Knockout, there will be plenty of interest in the progress of the GM clubs compared with the Bolton League and Central Lancashire League teams.

There have been some major changes in the Lancashire Knockout, which began at the weekend.

The most significant is Lancashire League clubs, for the first time since the competition began in 1972, have agreed to leave some Sundays free to accommodate the county’s premier knockout competition.

The Lancashire League found playing their matches primarily on a Sunday rather than a Saturday attracted more spectators, however the down side to this was clubs only had the championship to play for, unlike other leagues where Lancs KO qualification maintained the interest of clubs for a longer part of the season.

The top five Lancashire League clubs did enter the competition, three meetings between Bolton League teams and their teams over the past three seasons all ending in victory for the Bolton teams.

But matches were played pre-season or on Bank Holiday Mondays and had the Lancashire League teams survived the first two rounds they would have found further progress impossible unless their opponents agreed to play in midweek.

Two other changes affect the eligibility of players for the competition. In recent years clubs have been able to field a professional and an overseas amateur, but from this season it will be one or the other.

This does not affect Bolton League clubs but will have an impact on the teams in the east of the county such as the Central Lancashire League and Saddleworth League who still have both.

The other change will greatly benefit teams from the Liverpool Competition as they can now play their contracted county players in the Knockout, rather than just the ones who have come through the club’s junior teams.

The quarter and semi-finals of the Dixon Air Conditioning t20 are being played today. At Horwich the home team face Westhoughton at 2.30pm with the winner playing last season’s winners Egerton around 6pm. At Walkden the hosts play Astley Bridge at 11.30am, with Tonge v Eagley at 3pm and the match between two winners beginning around 6pm.