THIS week sees the start of another season in the BSF Rounders League.

More than 2,000 local women will be involved in the sporting action as 149 teams play in 15 sections - all hoping for a dry summer, no doubt.

The Bolton District Sunday School League formed a rounders competition in 1922 and it has thrived ever since.

It is the largest league of its kind in the country and the local players are proud to maintain a unique tradition.

In the first season there were 12 Sunday School teams and this had nearly doubled by 1923. By 1953 there were 72 teams and 1,300 players.

The Chadwick Cup, still competed for every year, was donated to the League in 1929 by Mrs JW Chadwick "for the love of the girls and the honour of the game."

For many years Mrs Chadwick and her husband would present each girl with a pink carnation after the final and the captain of the winning team with a replica of the cup.

To mark the start of the new season, I thought you might like to see some rounders pictures from yesteryear.

Photographs

top pic: Kearsley West batters await their turn against Burtons A at Lord Street, Farnworth, in May, 1949.

middle: Some of those mill girls look a bit funny to me... Merton Spinning Company employees - members of the firm's sports club - took part in a comic rounders match at Haslam Park, Bolton in June, 1948. Proceeds went to the National Children's Home.

bottom: The final of the Mrs JW Chadwick Challenge Cup in August, 1937, was won by Tootals, right, when they beat Eagley Mills at the Heaton Cricket Ground. In the centre are the Mayoress, League Chairman Mr A Greenhalgh, and Mrs Chadwick herself.