SINCE joining the Lancashire League we’ve had a dream start with 12 wins from 12 games.

When we came into the league we definitely wanted to finish in the top half to make the top division next season, and people were hoping for maybe top four.

We had to set our sights fairly high, but we’re exceeding expectations at the minute. We’re part of the title race and we’ve now got a little buffer.

It’s an exciting time to be part of Walsden Cricket Club and we can take a lot of pride in the team we put out as well.

Apart from the pro they’re all local players and have all played junior cricket for Walsden.

This is the fifth year we’ve had Umesh Karunaratne as pro, so he knows the team very well and they know him. He’s got 35 wickets this season which makes him the joint leading wicket taker.

We’ve had some brilliant amateur performances this season as well, our opening bowler Jamie Shackleton has 31 wickets.

On the batting side we’ve had lots of great performers, we bat a long way down, but brothers Joe and Josh Gale have been excellent.

Joe scored an unbeaten 148 in a cup match, which was a new club amateur record, on the same weekend that he got an unbeaten 100 batting seven in the T20 on the Friday night and then 60 odd not out in the league on Sunday. He got 300 runs in a weekend without being out once. But then Josh went and smashed 160 at Bacup and took the record off him.

It’s great to see these lads doing well, they’ve grown up together. A lot of them their dads played for Walsden as well, Nick Barker is the current captain, his brother Stevie plays and their dad Chris is a former first team captain.

The two Gayle brothers, their dad Kenny Gale played first team cricket at Walsden. There’s a bit of heritage, it’s brilliant to see.

Historically we were in the Central Lancashire League and there was always the question of whether the Lancashire League or the Central Lancashire League was the best league.

When the Central Lancashire League ended we joined the Pennine League, which only lasted two years but we won it both years. So the lads do have a bit of a winning habit, when we came into the Lancashire League you have to come in with some confidence.

If you look a the top few sides and the bottom few sides there’s a mix of ex-Lancashire League and Central Lancashire League teams, it suggests to me that they were similar standards.

Since joining the league we’ve had an excellent welcome, it’s been absolutely brilliant. People are enjoying the standard of cricket and they’re also enjoying the facilities. Lancashire League clubs have got excellent facilities, great grounds and people are really appreciating that.

We’ve got some tough games to come. We’ve still got to play Burnley, we’ve got to play Church, Darwen and we have to play Todmorden.

We’re two miles away from Todmorden so they’re our local rivals, but we’ve never been in the same league before.