THE challenge this week is to write a sporting column which is totally devoid of the words Keane, metatarsal, World Cup and Beckham writes Peter Stafford

No one is looking forward to England's three matches in Japan more than me, but I must admit to having become bored to distraction with the wall-to-wall World Cup coverage.

So this week I will be more concerned with words such as Cup, Kerrigan, metamorphosis, Hamer and Bennison.

The metamorphosis of Astley Bridge has been one of the League's major talking points as they have developed from a side that everybody beats into a side that nobody beats without a considerable struggle.

They are currently lying fourth in the table, having won almost half of their matches and having lost none, and their home tie against Tonge tomorrow could be said to be the pick of the round.

When the two teams met earlier in the season it was only thanks to a seventh-wicket stand between Danny Guest and Andy Northrop that Tonge were denied.

The main man on the day, however, was Jon Kerrigan, whose 70 was twice as many as any other batsman in the match. I saw him hit 80-odd in a pre-season friendly, and while his 70 at Sharples Park was sandwiched by two noughts, he has since hit 74 at Eagley, 44 against his former team-mates from Little Lever, and an unbeaten 49 at Blackburn in the Thwaites LCB Trophy.

He is a batsman who doesn't hang around in his search for runs, and the Bridge bowlers will be well aware of the danger. Add to that the potential run-scoring threat of skipper Anderton along with all the N's, Nisar, Northrop and the two Nigels, and a high-scoring game becomes easy to imagine.

Tim Barry's current injury is not quite in the Beckham class as regards headlines, but it is important to Astley Bridge that he is firing on all cylinders with both bat and ball.

Kearsley's home tie against Bradshaw throws up an exact repeat of last season's first round, when the visitors were bundled out for 99, 33 runs short of their target. Fazal's seven for 41 was the dominating factor, but the Kearsley pro's lack of form this season has become something of a topic for conversation. Other than his five for 32 against bottom-of-the-table Farnworth, Fazal has only seven wickets to show at a cost of 309 runs.

You get the feeling that someone somewhere is about to pay for all this, and the Bradshaw lads will be hoping that it isn't them tomorrow!

Walkden go to Little Lever, taking with them what must be one of the best runs-per-wicket average at this stage of a season in the League's history. In all matches so far they have averaged exactly 40 runs for every wicket lost, having hit 341 for two in their last two league games. Little Lever, of course, will be reasoning that that kind of form must come to a temporary halt some time, but nevertheless, in a cup competition in which most runs wins, Watson, Smith, Parkinson, Bennison and the rest will be looking to carry on along their merry, run-drenched way.

It will certainly be a good test for the Tong brothers, who last week made telling contributions in the narrow league win over Westhoughton. In a joint 10 overs, they took the important wickets of Parker, Coates and Gaskell, and there is no doubt that Paul and Neil are important prospects for the immediate future.

Mike O'Rourke will find himself surrounded by team-mates, past and present, when he faces Greenmount at Egerton tomorrow. Current league form would suggest that the visitors are just about favourites in this one, although Egerton's first league win at Eagley last Saturday will have done wonders for their confidence, and O'Rourke's natural hunger for runs will have been raised a notch or two in view of the opposition.

Following their meeting today at the Tyldesleys, Heaton and Westhoughton will decamp to Lower Pools for tomorrow's Hamer Cup game. The outcome of today's match could well have some bearing on each team's level of confidence tomorrow and sporting tradition has it that in the event of a cup and league double-header, a team wins one and loses the other, although in this case I would be willing to go out on a limb and forecast that Westhoughton's superior all-round strength will carry the day on each occasion. And if that isn't the cue for Hirwani to take seven for 30 and six for 20 I don't know what is!

The final game is between two sides whose confidence level can rarely have been at such a low ebb. Farnworth, at home to Eagley, have yet to win a game, while the visitors' last three matches have all been lost, including that debacle at Westhoughton two weeks ago when they were bowled out for a humiliating 34, the League's lowest total to date. Put it this way, neither side could ask for a better opportunity to regain a little self-respect.

So, at the risk of putting the kiss-of-death on at least one half of them, the clubs I would expect to see in the quarter-finals are Tonge, Kearsley, Walkden, Egerton, Westhoughton and Eagley. Oh yes, and Horwich and Farnworth SC. Of those two I'm fairly confident!