BOLTON-born Walter Brearley was one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year in 1908. The others included Lord Hawke and Jack Hobbs.

He was a businessman in the cotton trade who gained fame as the last amateur fast bowler in England in the decade before the First World War.

Spin, the official magazine of Lancashire County Cricket Club, reports in the current issue that two silver-shielded match balls -- presented to him for outstanding bowling for Lancashire -- are now in the club's museum at the Old Trafford ground.

Museum curator Keith Hayhurst writes in the magazine: "A well-built, confident, energetic right-arm fast bowler, Walter Brearley generated great pace from a shortish run and troubled the best of batsmen."

The presentation balls were for 14 wickets in a match against Essex at Old Trafford, and for a game against Middlesex in 1911 when he took 6 for 45 in the first innings and 10 wickets in the match.

Mr Hayhurst bought them at auction and the cost was borne by the club's honorary treasurer, David Hodgkiss, who is chief executive of William Hare Ltd, the Bury-based steel company.

Mr Hayhurst says Brearley appeared in four Tests against Australia and could have played in more -- refusing invitations on occasions and upsetting the selectors at other times.

Walter Brearley was born in 1876 and died in 1937, aged 60.

He began his rise to fame in the Farnworth Parish Church team and later played for Bolton Cricket Club in Green Lane.

During his Lancashire career, which began in 1902, he took 690 wickets at 18 runs each.

He met with special success in the great battles with Yorkshire, and in the 14 matches between these counties in the years 1903 to 1911 he dismissed 125 batsmen at 16 runs each.

In his recent book, which features 100 Lancashire greats, Keith Hayhurst says Brearley played occasionally for Cheshire after leaving the first-class game.

He married the daughter of a hotelier at Bowness, in the Lake District, and his business took him to London, where he coached the young schoolboys at Lord's every April until his death. He was buried at Bowness.

The great cricket writer Neville Cardus described Brearley, clearly a volatile character, as "a forceful wind blowing through cricket, a gale of humanity raising a merry dust in the process."