TWENTY-four years ago Tonge Cricket Club produced an impressive brochure to celebrate its Centenary.

At the time John Bailey, the current President, was club secretary, his brother Vernon was Vice-Chairman, John Roberts was on the committee, and Frank Baldwin, of course, was Cricket Secretary.

Just to show that some things in the world of local cricket do remain constant, all four are still very much in evidence on match-days.

One person who, sadly, is not, is the League rep from those days, Bill Aspinall, one of the nicest people ever to walk on a Bolton League ground.

It was Bill, I remember, who asked me to write a piece for the aforementioned brochure, which I did, including in it the following passage -- "1960 at Castle Hill saw an invasion from the sub-continent, consisting of men with unpronounceable names and varying degrees of talent."

This season has seen a similar invasion from India and Pakistan, although the players concerned have been spread around the League a little more equitably, rather than being centred on one club, as was the case with Vinoo Mankad and his colleagues in the early '60s.

Their names, with the possible exception of Sairaj Bahutule, were easily pronounceable from the off, and, while at least one other name provided us with something of a weekly spelling test, the degrees of talent shown by the six players concerned varied only from the very good to the excellent, and, as a result, they quickly became an integral part of the 2000 season.

Before today's matches, the six pros have combined to produce 3.771 runs and 322 wickets, remarkable figures when one considers that two of them, Rashmi Parida and Sher Ali, are wicketless, and another pair, Fazal Akber and Iqbal Sikander, have scored minimal runs.

I shall remember for a long time the innings played by Bahutule early in the season at Heaton, those by Saeed Anwar on Trinity and Hamer Cup Final days, and that of Parida at Farnworth. Sher Ali has suffered from playing for the bottom club, although he blossomed out last weekend with 130 runs against Horwich and Bradshaw, and should finish with upwards of 700.

While Bahutule, at one point, looked in line to become only the third player to reach the 1000 run/100 wicket double, it now appears that he will have to be satisfied with just the batting half, which he achieved last weekend, and Parida's unbeaten 139 against Westhoughton sees him comfortably placed for the same figure.

Saeed Anwar is still in with an outside chance of the double, needing 112 runs and 16 or 18 wickets, depending on whether you believe him, or the averages! The injury incurred by Fazal at Eagley on Saturday means that 100 wickets are now probably out of his reach unless he enjoys some spectacular figures between now and the end of the season, although he will go home with the massive consolation of having, along with his captain, become something of a television celebrity!

His genuine pace has provided this spectator at least with a lot of pleasure, the moreso since it has been viewed from the safety of the boundary edge! Which just leaves Iqbal.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by Tonge to compile a breakdown of his figures against each of the other 13 clubs during his seven-year stay. While his best averages have, predictably, been reserved for the sides at the lower end of the table, purely in terms of wickets taken he has performed best against Tonge's main rival of recent times, having taken 74 Westhoughton wickets in the seven seasons. Conversely, his worst wicket-tally has been his 39 against Kearsley.

But by far the most staggering statistic to have emerged from the whole exercise is that, in the seven years concerned, he has taken five or more wickets in an innings on no less than 87 occasions. To put that into perspective, the Bolton League record-holder in that respect is Frank Rushton, of Eagley and Little Lever, who performed the feat 151 times -- in 19 seasons!!

Last weekend, Iqbal, like Parida, Bahutule and Sher Ali, enjoyed personal triumph, moving to 100 wickets for the sixth time in seven years. Pity about his one poor season, that of 1997, when he only managed 93! Birtwistle favourites TOMORROW'S Birtwistle Cup Final features the two clubs who have enjoyed most successes in the competition, Tonge and Heaton, each five-times winners. Indeed, one or other of the two sides has featured in eight of the last 10 finals.

The only previous occasion on which they have met at the last stage was in 1993, when Tonge came out on top by 28 runs, thanks largely to Man-of-the-Match Craig Wardle's 80 and Tony Bailey's 6 for 44.

Heaton, currently in second position in the table, stand 30 points ahead of fifth-placed Tonge, and the additional fact that they have enjoyed the lion's share of the points from the two meetings this season would suggest that the Lower Pools side will go into the game as favourites.

But it is a final. Both sides contain match-winners, and, like all finals, it's all down to who performs on the day. One thing's for certain. Tonge's batsmen will be hoping to perform rather better than they did at Piggott Park two years ago!