IT’S the Bolton Cricket League presentation night tonight when the great and the good of the year’s achievers pick up a memento of their success.

The winners of the various league and cup competitions and the best batsmen, bowlers and wicketkeepers will walk out to respectful applause – and the odd cheeky boo of course – at Leigh Miners Welfare Institute – an odd choice of venue for a league full of Bolton clubs, but that’s another matter.

Anyone who wins an award deserves it, but there are often those who don’t win anything but deserve every bit as much acclaim.

I doubt anyone from Tonge Cricket Club will make the weaving walk between the tables and up the steps onto the stage tonight.

The Castle Hill club finished bottom of the league this season, a place they’ve grown to know well, with just one win.

That came in the last game of the season against a Standish side who were second bottom and without some of their regular players.

That didn’t matter to Tonge. It was one game more than they won the year before and they partied like they’d won the league.

They were still talking about it at their presentation night a month later.

I saw at lot to respect about Tonge that night. Kept going in difficult times by the likes of Paul and Gillian Schofield, they’ve got a nucleus of players who want to be there as much because of the tough times as in spite of them.

There’s something special about being at a club when it’s at its lowest ebb. It gives you special pride when the tide turns and makes you a part of that club forever.

And it’s not just the players who feel that way.

At the presentation night one of the prize winners was Tom Schofield, Paul and Gillian’s son.

He won the club person of the year award and it is fair to say Tonge probably could not function without him.

Not only is he the groundsman with all that entails, but also the odd job man whose remit involves fixing, mending, unblocking, painting, shifting and carrying and opening and closing the club. And he does it around a full-time job.

His pride at Tonge simply getting through the season was clear at that presentation night and proof that you don’t have to be a top player to be a star at a sports club.

Every club has someone like Tom, someone who is so far in the background they hardly quality for unsung hero.

They’re the unsung unsung heroes who are cherished by those who see the fruits of their labour but unseen by others.

But, because of Tom and others behind the scenes, Tonge got through another season in this difficult period in their long history.

It will be the players who get all the glory at Leigh Miners tonight, and they’ll deserve it.

But they should spare a thought for all the Tom Schofields at their clubs who make it possible.