CRICKET, like most things in life, is full of irony, and perhaps the best example this season came last Sunday, when Kearsley were presented with the championship trophy after having lost a league game for the first time since they were beaten by Horwich on the corresponding day of 1999.

By an odd quirk of fate, on the same day, Walshaw also clinched their Association title having just lost to Adlington.

To any local supporter with half a cricket brain, Kearsley's success had been pretty much a foregone conclusion for the last couple of months.

Tonge had topped the table for a week or two as May gave way to June, but otherwise it's been Kearsley all the way, and another of life's little ironies decreed that, today, those two sides should meet at Springfield Road.

With Kearsley keen to prove their new-found superiority, and Tonge still smarting after having their crown usurped, it should be quite a game.

Kearsley's title is well-deserved, as all League Championships are, by definition. The recruitment of three players -- Fazal Akber, Jason Swift and Mel Whittle -- has proved decisive.

Swift's three centuries and five half-centuries have seen him go pass Craig Duxbury's club record and, let's face it, he couldn't play a dull innings if his life depended on it!

Fazal's 84 wickets throw up an interesting statistic in that 71 per cent of them have been obtained without the help of his fielders, 41 bowled and 19 lbw. When he's bowling, he's exciting to watch, and, when he's batting, he doesn't exactly hang around wasting everyone's time! And yet, in one respect, Mel Whittle can lay claim to have been the catalyst which has changed a good side into a championship one.

When you have a bowler capable of sending down the thick end of 500 overs a season for less than a thousand runs, then life in the field suddenly becomes that much easier. His 76 wickets almost come as something of a bonus!

Mel hasn't got a bad record for Bolton League championships. There was 1993 at Kearsley, then another, two years later, as Little Lever's pro, and now this. Let's face it, if he doesn't bowl his team mates to the title, he's perfectly capable of talking them to it!

One of the season's classic quotes came from an Eagley player (who shall remain nameless, mainly because I can't remember which one it was) who said: "If Mel just had that little bit of self confidence, he'd be a good player!"

Life in the field also becomes that much easier for a club when it manages to hold on to the previous year's professional. and, in that respect, Darron Foy has also made major contributions to the success, with almost 500 runs which include three match-winning half-centuries, and 33 wickets.

Four other batsmen -- John Ratledge, Tom Whittle, Jon Partington and skipper Simon Thomson -- have also gone pass the 50-mark on various occasions, and, if the captain's run-tally has been down on 1999 (perhaps a touch of the Nasser Hussains), he has, like Hussain, the massive consolation of having been an excellent leader of an outstanding side.

To return to the subject of irony. Farnworth Social Circle's 2nd XI added a touch of their own last weekend, when they made sure of their League Championship on Sunday, having been bowled out for a meagre 41 by Kearsley 2nd the previous day!

After having suffered a couple of early defeats in May, their only two prior to last Saturday, they slowly climbed the table, and moved to the top in mid-July when they won at Bradshaw.

The following week they beat Eagley, leaders for the first half of the season, since when they have never looked back. Immediately before the debacle on Saturday when, it has to be said, they had a weakened team on duty, they had enjoyed a run of 11 straight wins interrupted only by one rain-affected draw. So far 14 teams have been bowled out for 120 or less, and, indeed, so well has the side's attack performed in recent weeks, that the Circle batsmen have had little chance to shine.

Skipper Tony Bradley and John Mulligan have led the way, sharing 120 wickets almost equally. Andrew Ogden has also bowled well, and Ian Edwards, starting life anew as an all-rounder, has chipped in with more than just a few cheap wickets. Obviously, Ian's batting and general presence in the side have had a great deal of influence, and Gary Murphy and Adam Green have also hit a lot of runs.

One player who has impressed me on the couple of occasions I've seen him is Circle's young wicket-keeper, Simon Booth. He has agility, a good pair of hands, and. hopefully, a great future. The League has produced a lot of excellent young keepers in recent years, notably Evans, Guest, Walsh, Carson, Ainscough and Kay, and, in Booth, Circle could well have provided another.

Prior to last Sunday, the Howarth Cup was one of only two of our 20 trophies, senior and junior, indoors and out, that Farnworth Social Circle had not won at some stage of their 17 years in the Bolton League. Now they only need the Denis Lyddon Cup to complete a full house.

In the same short space of time, Greenmount won the Hamer Cup and the 3rd Team Sykes Cup, two trophies they had not won previously. They now just need success at Under-15 level and indoors to achieve a similar target. It's called making up for lost time!