THERE wasn't much doubt about where to go last Saturday.

To Walkden, obviously, to see the close, high scoring and exciting tussle between the two sides hanging on to Westhoughton's coat-tails in second and third place in the table.

How wrong can you be! The "close tussle" developed into something of a rout, and the whole thing was over by the time people at other venues were just starting their tea.

One of Greenmount's problems this season has been that of missing key players in important matches, and this week it was the turn of Stuart Leach, who cried off during the morning, and Gary Chadwick, whose last innings at Walkden was the superb 143 he hit last September before becoming, rather improbably, Mike Bennison's second wicket of the season.

Equally improbably, Greenmount had three Kays, Martin, Derek and Neil, batting at 7, 8 and 9, with the middle one, Derek, being caught by Andy Kay, Walkden's wicketkeeper, all of which would have been confusing to the casual spectator.

David Smith blew away the visitors' first three wickets, one of whom was the excellent Shetty, and only John Ashworth, who hit 27, made any real impact with the bat. Smith went on to take 5 for 30, as Greenmount were shot out for 81 in 36 overs.

The only blip in Walkden's reply came with Bennison's dismissal. In Leach's absence, Mark Fallon had opened the bowling, forsaking his off-spin for some medium-pace stuff, and when the Oscar ceremonies are held next winter, my nomination in the Worst Wicket-taking Ball of the Season category will be the delivery that saw the back of Bennison.

Pitched halfway down, with "Hit me" written all along the seam, the ball ought, by rights, to have ended up somewhere in Swinton. In the event the Walkden captain, showing a touch more generosity towards fielders than he usually does, hit it straight down the throat of the League vice-Chairman at square leg!

Mark Stewart bowled as reliably as always, but lacked wicket-taking support, and once again, it was David Smith who steered Walkden to a routine win with a typically well constructed 40.

Rarely has the Bolton area produced a better all round cricketer than Smithy, the more so when his outstanding fielding ability is added to the equation.

When we crossed over to Kearsley, visitors Eagley were 20 for 0 with 147 their target. An hour or so later they had progressed to 100 for 1, and with O'Rourke seemingly in control and John Conlon having moved into the 40s thanks to a combination of good shots and good fortune, courtesy of some fairly awful ground fielding by Kearsley, the game was as good as won.

This was the moment, however, that Eagley chose to treat us to their interpretation of the Wall Street Crash.

The last nine wickets disappeared for just 18 runs, Kearsley's fielding had recovered its composure, and the whole thing was typified by a silly run-out (are there any other kind?) and by the stumping of John Dudley, when wicketkeeper Rick Hamblett underarmed the ball back to the stumps and caught the batsman with his feet still not where they should have been.

The main contributor to Eagley's embarrassment was Dave Mather, whose dismissal of O'Rourke started the turnaround.

He worked hard for his figures of 7-4-5-4, and was only robbed of a "5-for" by his age, which dictated that he should be taken off, when all cricketing logic indicated that he shouldn't!

The exciting last over thriller between Egerton and Heaton ended my weekend on a high note.

The game was dominated by the high quality spin bowling of Hirwani and Price, the batting of Garner, Northrop, Cunliffe, Ward, and Heaton's excellent young acquisition, Jack Southworth, but above all by Jon Fearick's decisive and unbeaten 60, which was the difference between the two sides.

In his last four matches for Heaton, Fearick has hit 226 runs for only twice out, with match-winning bowling spells against the two top sides in the table, thrown in for good measure.

For many spectators however, myself included, much of the gloss was taken off the excellence of the cricket by the totally inept handling of the scoreboard.

An efficiently manned board is an essential ingredient in the enjoyment of a cricket match, and hopefully, Sunday's shortcoming will prove to be a one-off at Longworth Road.