FOLLOWING last weekend's cricket in the Warburtons Bolton League, the first and second team tables have a similar look about them, with Westhoughton and Greenmount respectively leading the way, but not commandingly so writes Peter Stafford

At first-team level, Greenmount have crept up to within one game of the leaders, with Walkden -- in spite of Sunday's calamity at Kearsley -- still a long way from out of it.

Greenmount's second team, with three draws from their last five games, now find the consistent Bradshaw side a mere 15 points behind them, although third-placed Farnworth Social Circle, 46 points adrift of the leaders, now find themselves with a mountain to climb.

One trophy that would appear to have been decided is the Crumblehulme Cup, for which Greenmount look racing certainties.

Sunday's second-team cricket threw up three excellent performances, two of them from Greenmount players.

Against Little Lever, Simon Woolford hit an unbeaten 137, and Neil Roberts' 8-39 might well have taken the 2004 Best Bowling Performance Award, had it not been for the fact that, the previous day, evergreen Chris Lomax had taken 8-11 for Kearsley against Farnworth.

But the innings of the weekend was that of Heaton's Mick Daley, whose unbeaten 129 against Farnworth Social Circle included 12 sixes and four fours, and came from 70 balls out of a winning total of 166-1 achieved in just 20 overs.

My own weekend was illuminated by Nishit Shetty's 10th half-century of the season at Eagley, in an otherwise undistinguished game.

The Man from Mumbai has proved a worthy successor at Brandlesholme Road to the professional batting roster which includes names such as Taylor, Chee Quee, Siddons, Waugh, Hayden and Saeed Anwar. All that now remains to be decided is who will end up with the highest 2004 run total, Shetty (1,212) or Adil Nisar (1,108).

On Sunday, I was at Egerton to see the nail-biting finish provided by Horwich, who, when the game's final delivery arrived, needed five to win.

Grant Long's bid for glory, however, made up in height what it lacked in distance, and was comfortably caught by Gary Garner.

David White, who bowled 25 reasonably economic overs and hit an undefeated 66, was unlucky to see the win slip away, and it was interesting, if not somewhat unusual, to see 53 overs of spin sent down in a match during which Ian Taylor and Josh Cunliffe (6-29 last week) were not called upon to bowl.

Several individual targets are on offer this weekend. Narendra Hirwani requires seven wickets to reach 100 for the second time. Over at Westhoughton, Antonio Mayers is just 10 short of the same feat, while lan Pilkington is 34 runs away from a career 10,000.

Meanwhile, 17 more wickets for Mark Stewart would see him extend his own personal League amateur record to 104.

On Monday at Darcy Lever, the 34th in the series of Trinity Cup matches between the Bolton League and the Bolton Association takes place with a 1pm start.

At the time of writing, neither side has been finalised, but the League will be represented by the nucleus of the MEN Trophy-winning team plus the previously mentioned Shetty and Nisar.

The Association, keen to record their first win since 1999, will have four players from the host club, skipper John Norris, professional Devendra Bundela, Dominic Gavin and Dave Morris, who, in the corresponding match of 2003, played in the League's colours.

Ijaz Mahmood, Neil Bannister, Andrew Griffiths and David Hamilton will add considerably to the batting which, sadly, will be missing 1,000-run man Karl Brown.

An interesting selection for the Association is that of Elton's opening bowler Peter Kay, who, as nephew of the League's team manager, might or might not present him with divided loyalties. On balance, I would think not.