I LOOK at Greenmount perched on top of Division One with two games to play and I can hardly believe it.

Take our free-scoring pro Kaustub Pawar out of the equation and our batting has been pretty average.

We have rarely made it past 200, relying heavily on bowling out the opposition cheaply, but that has been enough.

We have the talent in the team to perform better with the bat, but our amateurs have just not done it for one reason or another.

It’s crazy to think we have got away with it, but that probably is a fair reflection of the difference between Division One and the top tier.

What I have found this season is, other than the top three or four teams, most sides do not have the strength you see in the Premier Division, where every player from one to 11 can hold a bat.

There are one or two top players in every team in Division One, but as a bowling attack we were more than aware that once we had got the top three or four batsmen out the rest followed pretty cheaply.

We were no different and will have to work hard to rectify that over the winter because more often than not we will have to score 200-plus to win matches in the Premier next season.

While I am sure we have a nucleus of a squad capable of competing, we will have to add players to the group.

The silly season has already started, with clubs at all levels scrabbling around to bring in new faces.

Thankfully, Greenmount have already signed up Pawar for another season as pro, and hopefully he will be able to pick up where he left off.

But I think the powers-that-be will be looking to bring in a couple of batsmen and probably a bowler as well.

There are lots of rumblings on social media that it is going to be a very competitive market.

Teams in the Lancashire League, in particular, seem prepared to increase their budgets to attract the best players in a bid to make sure they stay in the top tier when the structure splits into two divisions.

Clearly, the Greater Manchester League sides are competing in the same market and will have put their hands in their pockets to bring in the talent.

Saying that, I am a great believer in growing a team from the bottom up. You need a decent crop of players in the second team capable of making the step up if called upon.

Greenmount have quite a few good youngsters in reserve who maybe are not quite ready yet, while our third team won the Sunday Cup at the weekend.

Egerton are a good refrain for any club that go into a season without a decent second string.

Their seconds are the worst in Division Four West by a considerable margin, with just nine points all season.

It is perhaps no surprise then that the first team is struggling – champions last year but now in real danger of the drop.