HUNDREDS of Bolton League batsmen have hit a half-century, many of those players have contributed to a League Championship, and a tiny handful of them have reached 10,000 runs writes Peter Stafford

But none, I would suggest, have previously achieved each of those three targets during the course of a single innings. All of which makes Ian Pilkington's unbeaten 53 at Heaton on Sunday unique in the annals of the League.

The fact that it was played against one of only three teams to have beaten Westhoughton during 2004, and with the added pressure of the title at stake, makes it all the more praiseworthy.

It did appear at one stage that the whole thing would be over and done with by tea time. Heaton had struggled to 73-9, Mayers had duly reached his 100 wickets, and an early finish was on the cards.

But at that point Simon Booth was joined by Paul Mort, who had last played first-team, cricket four or five years ago, and together they began to build a last-wicket stand of 67 which would lift the total into the realms of respectability and give Heaton something at which to bowl.

When you are chasing a total of 141 with the League championship on offer, the last name you want to see in the opposition's attack is that of Hirwani who, like Mayers, started the game on the brink of 100 wickets.

And so Pilkington and Steve Parker began their reply with understandable caution, doubtless reminding each other that Hirwani and Jon Fearick, back in July, had combined to bowl Westhoughton out for a miserly 104.

Together they took the score up to 27, after which Adam Coates helped Pilkington add another 50, at which point the emergence of Antonio Mayers signalled what was to prove the final, hectic phase of the match.

Mayers' undefeated 47 contained, among other things, two huge sixes over wide long-on, a couple of exquisite square-cut fours, and a reverse-sweep which clattered to the boundary with all the force of a Flintoff special.

It is not a shot that I have ever really approved of, but when it is played with such conviction, who am I to argue?

His 47 came from 23 balls, and I was told on Sunday by scorer Paul Grundy that, over the season, his 899 runs have come from just 858 balls, a fairly staggering statistic.

His run-tally has just about equalled that of Dwayne Smith last season, while he and Paul Hart have combined to take 154 wickets, the best haul by a pair of Westhoughton bowlers since Dick Pollard and Jimmy Hatchman shared 172, 62 years ago. Indeed, Mayors is only the third bowler in the club's history to exceed 100 wickets.

While Craig McKellar had an off-day on Sunday, he has given excellent back-up to Mayers and Hart during his short stay at the Tyldesleys.

On the batting front the reliable Pilkington has increased his 2003 run-total by 300, and he and Mayers have never lacked support from the Parkers, Gaskell, Coates and the Athertons, who, between them, comprise one of the strongest batting line-ups in recent seasons.

The League table never lies. Westhoughton have won more games, and lost fewer than any other team, and they are worthy champions.

What will be particularly pleasing to the officials at the Tyldesleys is the fact that well over half of the first-team squad are players who have come through the club's junior sides, as was very much the case in 1980 on the occasion of their last previous championship.

So now almost everything is done and dusted, with Walkden, Greenmount and Tonge immovable in the three places below the champions. All that remains to be decided are the final two places in the 2005 Lancs KO, which will be filled by two from Eagley, Horwich and Egerton, depending on today's results.

There is, too, the small matter of Sunday's Thwaites LCB Final at Old Trafford, which I think Bootle will win easily. And if that doesn't put the kiss of death on the Liverpool club, I can do no more.