THE Bolton League season came to a sad end at Old Trafford on Sunday when Bootle outplayed Westhoughton to bring an end to our three-year domination of the Thwaites LCB Competition writes Peter Stafford

The final result was not entirely unexpected, although it has to be said that Westhoughton did not perform up to the standards which ensured the cup and league double at domestic level.

To go to Old Trafford for a one-off game is always a bit of a culture shock with the much faster wicket, the size of the ground, together with the attendant problems in field-placings posing varying questions.

Bootle, on the other hand, had in their side three former Lancashire first team players, one current second XI bowler, two Cheshire regulars and a couple of experienced league professionals, one of whom, David Snellgrove, batted superbly and reached only the second hundred, after that of Mike Bennison, to be achieved in an LCB Final.

Ian Pilkington looked assured, and Alan Gaskell remained unbeaten, but the remainder of the batsmen crumpled in the face of an almost insurmountable task.

Westhoughton will come away with two consolations, the small one of having become only the second local side, along with Walkden, to have appeared in three finals, and the altogether more significant one of the aforementioned domestic double.

Congratulations, too, to Greenmount's second XI who, led by Ian Senior, retained their league title. They topped the table from ball one, and remained undefeated throughout the campaign.

Neil Roberts and Chris Crawford combined to share 143 wickets almost equally, but the real star of the show was 15-year-old Simon Woolford, who included seven 50s and a century in his 732 runs.

And so, as yet another season is consigned to the record books, who were the stars of 2004?

I have written many words about Nisar, Shetty, Pilkington, Hirwani and Stewart, but how about David White, 83 wickets and 873 runs which, by my reckoning have taken him to second in the League batting averages.

Speaking of which, had Gary Garner managed just five runs from his final innings, there would have been an unprecedented seven batsmen each with a 50+ average, which says something about the current domination of bat over ball.

Let's hear it, too, for Chuck O'Rourke and Steve Foster, whose deeds with bat and ball have catapulted Eagley to their best league position since the days of Strydom and Taljard 10 years ago.

And Simon Anderton, whose decision to stay at Tonge proved to be so significant in the club's subsequent revival, resulting in fourth place, the Special Competition award and, just possibly, the League Batting Prize.

Chris and Tim Barrow, too, are worthy of mention. Their all-round cricket has resulted in a joint 1,093 runs and 93 wickets, and has been a major factor in revitalising Farnworth and elevating the club from last year's disastrous bottom position up to halfway.

But it is the League's wicketkeepers who have rewritten the record books. Tonge's Danny Rees' five victims on Saturday took his final total up to 43, not bad for a supposed stand-in.

Four others, Simon Booth, Paul Blinkhorn, Jon Partington and Rick Northrop, who also found the time and the energy to hit over 900 runs, each went past his club's previous best figure.

Partington equalled Blinkhorn's League record of 52 league and cup victims, and, what is more, he achieved it from the last ball of the season, when he stumped Kearsley's Darren Preston. That same dismissal, incidentally, brought Jon another record, that for most victims (51) in League games only.

And that is about it. All that remains is to see the Wanderers into Europe and Bury to promotion. As the song title has it: "I can dream, can't I?"