THE Astley Bridge scorer had it right. In the space marked "weather conditions" in her scorebook, she had simply written the word "cruddy"!

Not entirely sure what it meant. I looked it up in my dictionary when I got home and found "cruddy": Adj. dirty; unpleasant; worthless; contemptible. Like I said, the Astley Bridge scorer had it right!

In fact, the weather was such that, even though the game began in dry conditions, you never really fancied it to be played to a finish, and, sure enough, after 39 overs had been bowled, the light rain became not quite so light!

Mark Gwilt was given just enough time to clinch his second unbeaten half-century in his last three innings. Tattersall was given just enough time to lose his wicket, and, at 126 for 6 off they all trudged, never to return.

In truth, the two-and-a-half-hours' play produced few highlights. Andy Hart and Imram Javed each hit a glorious leg-side six, and Gwilt batted with a captain's authority, playing a fine selection of shots all round the wicket. The fielding highspot was the catch with which Simon Entwistle sent the main threat David Morris on his way.

Morris picked up a legside delivery from Cuff and hoisted it high into the air towards the bridge, whereupon Entwistle made considerable ground to take a remarkable catch on the very edge, not knowing where his feet were in relation to the boundary kerb-stones.

Sajid Mahmood bowled well, finishing with 2 for 29 from his 14 overs, but he and Matt Cuff bowled unchanged for five minutes short of two hours. Had the innings run its course, Astley Bridge would certainly have incurred a fourth points deduction after the opening pair had averaged in excess of four minutes per over.

For me, one of the more pleasurable aspects of a less than pleasurable day was spending time in the company of Frank Tattersall. Frank, who knows more than a thing or two about off-spin bowling, was more than impressed with his first sight of Will Halton, who had eventually replaced Sajid at the tennis-courts end, and it was the young Bridge off-spinner who brought a premature end to the game when he bowled Ian Tattersall with what turned out to be the final delivery of an unfulfilling day's cricket.

Knockout drama

The previous day's cricket at Castle Hill, however, had been far from unfulfilling, as Tonge played their way into this year's Final of the LCB Thwaites KO Competition. Their semi-final victims, Bootle, had been freely tipped as the hot favourites to take this year's title of Lancashire champions, but only for a brief spell of Friday's match did they appear capable of reaching Old Trafford.

Batting first, they struggled initially to come to terms both with the wicket, which had some variable bounce, and with the excellence of a Tonge attack in which, almost inevitably, Ian Taylor was the leading light.

Taddy ended the innings with 4 for 22. coming back strongly in his second spell which included, it has to be said, one of the dodgiest leg-befores I've seen in many a long day. So dodgy was it, in fact, that the bowler was holding up his hand in apology even as the umpire's finger went up! But, as Ian said to me afterwards with a happy, if rather guilty smile on his face: "You don't get many of those given!"

Another bowler who impressed me was Ian Eccleshare, who bowled eight fine overs from the Crompton Way end, keeping a fairly immaculate line and length and taking 1 for 28. In the second Round of the Birtwistle Cup last month he took 5 for 1 but, with all due respect to Horwich second team, Bootle are on a different batting plane, and Ian could feel more than pleased with his contribution to the eventual triumph.

A fine middle-order stand took the total up to 179 for 8, and many people, myself included, thought that could be 20 or 30 too many.

Above all, Tonge needed a good start. In fact they were given a superb one, as Adil Nisar and Jim Aspden came out with all guns blazing. Nisar played sublimely, hitting a stream of matchless shots to all parts of the ground as the pair raced to 83. When he went for 55, Simon Anderton took over the leading role, sensibly playing himself in before accelerating his scoring rate with a series of trade-mark Anderton cuts and drives.

Aspden went at 133 after having played his supporting role to perfection, and it was left to Nigel Hallows to accompany Anderton to the finishing line. The skipper was two short of a thoroughly deserved 50 when the winning runs came courtesy of a couple of extras.

And so Tonge have become the seventh Bolton League club to appear in a Lancs KO Final. Their opponents will be either Netherfield or Ormskirk, neither of whom will provide easy opposition, but I have a sneaking feeling that the flat wicket and wide open spaces of Old Trafford will be much to the liking of Tonge's batsmen in general, and Adil Nisar in particular.

I hope for everyone's sake, not least Frank Baldwin's, that I'm right! THE Astley Bridge scorer had it right. In the space marked "weather conditions" in her scorebook, she had simply written the word "cruddy"!

Not entirely sure what it meant. I looked it up in my dictionary when I got home and found "cruddy": Adj. dirty; unpleasant; worthless; contemptible. Like I said, the Astley Bridge scorer had it right!

In fact, the weather was such that, even though the game began in dry conditions, you never really fancied it to be played to a finish, and, sure enough, after 39 overs had been bowled, the light rain became not quite so light!

Mark Gwilt was given just enough time to clinch his second unbeaten half-century in his last three innings. Tattersall was given just enough time to lose his wicket, and, at 126 for 6 off they all trudged, never to return.

In truth, the two-and-a-half-hours' play produced few highlights. Andy Hart and Imram Javed each hit a glorious leg-side six, and Gwilt batted with a captain's authority, playing a fine selection of shots all round the wicket. The fielding highspot was the catch with which Simon Entwistle sent the main threat David Morris on his way.

Morris picked up a legside delivery from Cuff and hoisted it high into the air towards the bridge, whereupon Entwistle made considerable ground to take a remarkable catch on the very edge, not knowing where his feet were in relation to the boundary kerb-stones.

Sajid Mahmood bowled well, finishing with 2 for 29 from his 14 overs, but he and Matt Cuff bowled unchanged for five minutes short of two hours.

Had the innings run its course, Astley Bridge would certainly have incurred a fourth points deduction after the opening pair had averaged in excess of four minutes per over.

For me, one of the more pleasurable aspects of a less than pleasurable day was spending time in the company of Frank Tattersall. Frank, who knows more than a thing or two about off-spin bowling, was more than impressed with his first sight of Will Halton, who had eventually replaced Sajid at the tennis-courts end, and it was the young Bridge off-spinner who brought a premature end to the game when he bowled Ian Tattersall with what turned out to be the final delivery of an unfulfilling day's cricket.

Knockout final

The previous day's cricket at Castle Hill, however, had been far from unfulfilling, as Tonge played their way into this year's Final of the LCB Thwaites KO Competition. Their semi-final victims, Bootle, had been freely tipped as the hot favourites to take this year's title of Lancashire champions, but only for a brief spell of Friday's match did they appear capable of reaching Old Trafford.

Batting first, they struggled initially to come to terms both with the wicket, which had some variable bounce, and with the excellence of a Tonge attack in which, almost inevitably, Ian Taylor was the leading light.

Taddy ended the innings with 4 for 22. coming back strongly in his second spell which included, it has to be said, one of the dodgiest leg-befores I've seen in many a long day. So dodgy was it, in fact, that the bowler was holding up his hand in apology even as the umpire's finger went up!

But, as Ian said to me afterwards with a happy, if rather guilty smile on his face: "You don't get many of those given!"

Another bowler who impressed me was Ian Eccleshare, who bowled eight fine overs from the Crompton Way end, keeping a fairly immaculate line and length and taking 1 for 28. In the second Round of the Birtwistle Cup last month he took 5 for 1 but, with all due respect to Horwich second team, Bootle are on a different batting plane, and Ian could feel more than pleased with his contribution to the eventual triumph.

A fine middle-order stand took the total up to 179 for 8, and many people, myself included, thought that could be 20 or 30 too many.

Above all, Tonge needed a good start. In fact they were given a superb one, as Adil Nisar and Jim Aspden came out with all guns blazing. Nisar played sublimely, hitting a stream of matchless shots to all parts of the ground as the pair raced to 83. When he went for 55, Simon Anderton took over the leading role, sensibly playing himself in before accelerating his scoring rate with a series of trade-mark Anderton cuts and drives.

Aspden went at 133 after having played his supporting role to perfection, and it was left to Nigel Hallows to accompany Anderton to the finishing line. The skipper was two short of a thoroughly deserved 50 when the winning runs came courtesy of a couple of extras.

And so Tonge have become the seventh Bolton League club to appear in a Lancs KO Final. Their opponents will be either Netherfield or Ormskirk, neither easy opposition, but I have a sneaking feeling that the flat wicket and wide open spaces of Old Trafford will be much to the liking of Tonge's batsmen in general, and Adil Nisar in particular.

I hope for everyone's sake, not least Frank Baldwin's, that I'm right!