Good afternoon Ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Thorneyholme Road for this afternoon’s re-arranged fixture with Haslingden. The first attempt to play the game a fortnight ago proved to be a very wet day indeed with our visitors having somewhat the upper hand of the few overs that were possible before the rain brought an end to proceedings.

But today is another day and I am sure that the guys will be fired up for what will be a tough test for us, Haslingden are never an easy team to play and they will give us a hard game for sure. However we go into this weekends fixtures sitting pretty at the top of the league having secured three straight wins away at Lowerhouse, Bacup and East Lancs but we will not rest on our laurels and know that if we want to stay in the top spot we are going to have to play some very good cricket.

Last week’s game at East Lancs was a really good win with some fine performances, the skipper picked up his third collection of the season with 5-36 in the first innings as East Lancs scored 185, and in our reply a fine 71* from Toby ably assisted by Matt Wilson (43) and Graham Lloyd (33) saw us home with eight overs to spare – the first time we have beaten East Lancs in eleven seasons. The previous weekend saw us defeat Bacup on their own patch with another good all round performance.

So with Haslingden at home today and Rawtenstall here tomorrow we know we have to be at our best this weekend if we are to maintain our winning start. The return of “Bumble” last Sunday turned out to be a real damp squib as the heavens opened and not a ball was bowled. David has been extremely helpful to the club in many ways during our recent financial difficulties and the club can only benefit from the high profile that his inclusion in today’s team should bring.

Anyone who watches cricket on Sky TV will know that he remains as passionate about our great game as ever and it was an absolute pleasure to welcome him into the dressing room last Sunday and once again today. The TV cameras should be in attendance once more so let’s hope they have some cricket to film today and not just the puddles. It was also great to see Graeme Fowler here to see David turn out last week and the ex Lancashire and England trio of Lloyd, Fowler and Lloyd were to be seen catching up with things at the bar for a while after the games postponement. But whilst we may have a “celebrity” in our midst we must not lose sight of the fact that we have a game of cricket to win and we will be working hard to make sure that the lads continue to do all the things that have given us such a good start to the season. Enjoy the game.

Ian Wilson