TRY as I might, and I've been thinking very hard, I cannot recall a previous Hamer Cup semi final in which a team batting first fought back from the depths of 22 for 6 to win the tie, as Greenmount did on Sunday, at Heaton, to reach their fourth final in five years.

That in fact was how the scoreboard read when I arrived at the ground, and it did momentarily cross my mind to turn the car around and nip across to Westhoughton in search of a more competitive match. The decision to stay at Lower Pools, however, was the best I've made so far this season, and was well rewarded by the hugely competitive and nail-biting cricket that followed Greenmount's woeful start.

The game had begun on a sombre note, with a minute's silence to mark the passing of one of the League's most talented players of recent times. For my money, Brian Senior was, along with Arthur Crook, the Krikkens and Tim Wallwork, right up there at the top of the wicketkeeping tree, generally acknowledged by his Bolton League peers as being one of the best within living memory. His batting could be explosive, although when the occasion demanded it, he could be as difficult to dislodge ,as were the opinions he held on the game and on life itself.

My own memories are of a hard, but fair fighter on the field, and of a generally popular, occasionally provocative, but always highly companionable man off it. As such, he will be terribly missed around the cricket grounds and golf clubs of the area.

It was wholly appropriate that three members of his immediate family were involved in Sunday's proceedings, two of whom were to make telling contributions towards Greenmount's success.

But it was Nishit Shetty who, earning every penny of his fee, dragged his side back into contention, as he moved confidently to within 106 runs of his 1,000 for the season. His very professional 67 was well backed up, first by Paul Blinkhorn and then by Ian Senior, although the decision to turn down more than a few singles in order to keep the pro on strike met with a mixed reception within the crowd. Two knowledgeable former Heaton players disagreed on the matter. Paul Mort thought that those missed runs could cost Greenmount the game, while Roy Marland enthusiastically supported the tactic. Roy was proved right in the end, but it was a close run thing!

A final total of 130 probably represented wealth beyond skipper Mark Fallon's wildest dreams, but was generally reckoned not to be enough by most uncommitted spectators, myself included. But whatever kind of total you're chasing, you need some sort of a batting plan, and, if Heaton had one, it wasn't always apparent. Too many shots were aimed across the line, some fatally, and shot selection in general was below par. Only Jon Fearick provided the necessary combination of caution and confidence required if Heaton were to come out on top.

Shetty bowled with economy, and if Ryan Senior and Fallon were slightly more expensive at five an over, it was they who took the wickets, helped on occasion by over impetuosity on the part of certain of the batsmen. But it was the sustained effort and accuracy of Mark Stewart that made the real difference. He it was who took the vital early wickets of Ward and a strangely restrained Paul Rayment. And he it was at the end of the game, still bowling with the same threatening pace and immaculate line with which he started, who finally trapped Simon Booth leg before with just eight runs required and the same number of overs in hand.

Over at Westhoughton, Steve Parker's side completed a mixed sort of weekend during which their lead at the top had been reduced from 18 points to one of just two, only for them to bounce back on Sunday and clinch a place in what will be the club's 20th Hamer Cup Final.

During late Sunday afternoon news came through from the Tyldesleys that Westhoughton were 102 for 7, which, at that moment matched Greenmount's score exactly, a situation which seemed to imply a Farnworth/Heaton Final. But Mayers, McKellar, Stewart and Senior thought otherwise, and now Westhoughton's next handful of games take on mammoth proportions, including as they do the Hamer Cup Final, hopefully the two LCB ties which would take them to Old Trafford, and a potentially critical league match at Walkden.

So, no pressure then Steve....