Walkden treble caps a memorable season

6:58pm Friday 19th September 2008

QUESTION: What do past and present Walkden players Bill Tyldesley, Les Smith, John Smith and Mike Bennison have in common?

Answer: They have all captained the club to League and Cup doubles, in 1952, 1962, 1989, and, of course, the season just ended.

That particular feat has been achieved on 19 occasions, and Walkden’s four is now the highest number, closely followed by Bradshaw and Farnworth, who have each recorded three.

Last Sunday at St Annes, Walkden extended their double to an unprecedented Bolton League treble, when they overcame Farnworth Social Circle by 51 runs to win the Lancashire Knockout Trophy for the third time.

The previous day the two sides had met at Walkden in what turned out to be an exciting, if fairly meaningless, dress rehearsal, which was won in the final over by the visitors, for whom Tim Barrow’s 46 was crucial.

Walkden’s 132 owed almost everything to an excellent last-wicket partnership of 76 between Stephen Davies (60) and Andy Kay (22 not out), who would almost certainly not be batting at number 11 in any other League side. But all of that counted for little at St Annes once Mike Bennison and Praveen Gupta had put on 139 in 27 overs for the first wicket.

When both openers went in fairly quick succession, the innings faltered somewhat, and it was largely thanks to man-of-the-match Dave Smith’s rapid 47 that the match-winning total of 244-6 was reached.

Circle’s batsmen never really seemed to get to grips with the task set them, and when Tim Barrow, having repeated his 46 of the previous day, was bowled by Smith, it was game, set and match to Bennison’s side. When the match came to an end I was heartened by the remarks of an official from another league, who said the cricket played and the sportsmanship displayed by the two sides was a credit to Bolton League.

During the course of the day, I heard many complaints as to why the game could not have been held nearer to Bolton to save so many supporters from both clubs the long journey to the coast. I personally would have gone for Green Lane, but when I put the point to Neil Girvin, the LCB secretary and organiser of the tournament, he told me the club hosting the final had to be a Clubmark club, which Bolton CC are not. In fairness to St Annes, they put on a superb show, especially considering they were only given three days’ notice of the transfer from Blackpool.

All in all then, 2008 has been a tremendous season for Bolton League, which culminated in the St Annes final being contested by two of our clubs. The inter-league side won the J W Lees Trophy, beating three other leagues in the process, then retained the Anthony Axford Trophy when the Association were overcome at Tonge last month.

On the downside, two things stick in my mind. One has been the weather, which no one could do anything about. As Guy Haynes said in his article last week: “Cricket was not made for summers like this”, and he went on to praise, quite rightly, the groundsmen and volunteers who do their utmost and more to prepare pitches, often against the odds.

The other thing that has irritated a lot of local cricket followers has been the fact that, by my reckoning, 55 different professionals have been used by our 14 clubs. This is an ongoing problem, but one that needs addressing, sooner rather than later.

So that’s it from me this season, and, speaking of “ongoing problems”, what we have to look forward to now is seven months at the Reebok.

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