Surprise for Bridge pro

What he did not understand was just how long the Bridge supporters had been waiting for such celebrations.

It was back in September 1999 when Bridge last savoured success, ironically, after beating Westhoughton again.

But when the winning runs were scored in last week's Bolton League encounter, the Bridge joy could not be contained.

"Well, it was worth celebrating, wasn't it?" said secretary Ron Fallows, "but I did have to say to our new pro that it's not like that every week. Although, you never know.

"We played well with some good performances right through the team.

"Dheeraj played his part with bowling figues of 6-46 and an innings of 42 before we finished in style with a big hitting partnership between Tim Barry and Tony Clegg.

"I think we needed something like 88 off the last 12 overs to win yet they did it with an over to spare."

And just to add to the celebrations two Bridge players also reached Bolton League milestones. Paul Tebay passed the 10,000 runs mark while Steve Entwistle reached 5,500 runs for the club."

Dheeraj Jadhav, the new pro, is a 21 years old opening bat and bowler on his first overseas job from Maharashtra. He arrived last Sunday morning, had a belated breakfast, went to the ground and an hour later was playing.

"He looks to have settled down really well and as we have quite a few Asians at our club they have looked after him very well this week and made him feel very welcome," said Ron Fallows.

Tomorrow Bridge are in action against Farnworth when another win will have their fans rushing for the record books again to check on the last occasion they won two successive matches.

The record books will also be out at Kearsley, who have yet to lose a wicket in their two matches to date. Openers Steve Davies and Jordan Thornley were both unbeaten in ten wicket wins against Farnworth and Astey Bridge last week but they may find things a little tougher when they take on Walkden tomorrow.