The club are trialling new midweek opening times and will now open at 3pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with all the other days remaining the same.
Monday: 3pm to 11pm
Tuesday: 4pm to 11pm
Wednesday: 3pm to 11pm
Thursday: 3pm to 11pm
Friday: 1pm to 11pm
Saturday: 12 noon to 11pm
Sunday: 12 noon to 10.30pm
Chris Harrison’s food opening times this week:
Thursday: 5pm to 8pm
Friday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast & 2pm to 8pm
Saturday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast & 2pm to 8pm
Sunday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast & 1pm to 6pm
Sport on TV this week
Monday: Football: 8pm: Nottm Forest v Burnley
Tuesday: Football: 5.45pm AC Milan v Newcastle; 8pm: Man City v Crvena Zvezda
Wednesday: Football: 8pm: Bayern Munich v Man Utd; 8pm: Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven
Thursday: Football: 5.45pm: Linz ASK v Liverpool; 8pm: Brighton v AEK Athens; 8pm: Rangers v Real Betis
Friday: Football: 8pm: Birmingham v QPR
Saturday: Rugby Union World Cup: 4.45pm: England v Chile. Football: 5.30pm: Brentford v Everton; 8pm: Burnley v Man Utd. Rugby Union World Cup: 8pm: Ireland v South Africa.
Sunday: Football: 12 noon: Stoke v Hull; 2pm: Arsenal v Spurs; 4.30pm: Sheff Utd v Newcastle. Rugby Union World Cup: 4.45pm: Scotland v Tonga; 8pm: Wales v Australia.
Cask ales this week:
The coming week’s cask ales will be a selection of beers from Bowland, Mallinsons and Brewsmith breweries.
Building on from good cup runs – the under-15s reaching the final and the under-13s the semi-final – it was time for both teams to concentrate on the league.
The under-15s dominated their section, winning all 12 out of 12 games and most in some style!
With commanding batting at the top of the order by skipper Max Birtwistle (397 runs) and Edward Dickinson (352 runs) the under-15s blew most teams away – including their closest rivals. There were 50s from Max, Edward, Tom Clarke, Noah Birtwistle, Rupert Hallows and Ben Clarke.
During the campaign all the squad contributed and it was especially pleasing to watch our younger players stepping up to help out with runs, wickets, catches and all round good fielding performances.
Tom Clarke claimed seven victims behind the stumps and Edward Dickinson took five catches. Ewan Malone finished with 13 wickets, while the best bowling performances were Ben Clarke four for just three runs and Jonty Whitehead four for five runs.
After winning the league, coach Richard Birtwistle thanked all the parents for their support during the summer and told the players how proud he was of their efforts saying: “Well done to everyone for last night and for a brilliant season. Played twelve and undefeated. Worthy title winners and invincible.”
Greenmount CC Under 15s: Back, left to right, Dan Stevens, Tom Clarke, Edward Dickinson, Max Birtwistle, Eduardo Wackrill, Jonty Whitehead & Richard Birtwistle Front: Harry Nuttall, Rupert Hallows, Noah Birtwistle, George Kenyon, Ewan Malone & Ben Clarke
Our U13s also won their league, winning 13 out of 14 games, securing the title away at Todmorden, with one game to go.
If Tod had won the match, the league would have been shared between them, the Mount superstars and Rochdale.
Winning the toss, Greenmount elected to bowl first and restricted the home side to just 64 for 7 off their 16 overs – the Greenmount reply saw the team win with five overs to spare with the loss of just one wicket.
Throughout the campaign there was superb top order batting from skipper Noah Birtwistle (345 runs), Ben Clarke (373), Eduardo Wackrill (298) and Rupert Hallows (232) while George Kenyon, Harry Nuttall and Dexter Crowther all finished with more than 100 runs for the summer.
Ben Clarke finished with 23 wickets, Noah with 13 and Eduardo with 10. Ben also took the plaudits for best bowling performance with five for only three runs at Rishton and Freya Franklin took 4 for 16 at home to Littleborough.
Throughout the season everyone contributed at different points with bat and or ball and again we were able to enjoy debuts from players from a younger age group who stepped up comfortably.
Greenmount CC Under 13s: Back from left: Ben Clarke, Stanley Shaw, George Kenyon, Eduardo Wackrill, Dexter Crowther, Rupert Hallows, Mark Crowther. Front: James Herbert, Harry Nuttall, Noah Birtwistle, Freya Franklin & Luke Hall
The final Sunday of the season for the first and second teams had an all too familiar ring to it as both games fell foul of the weather due to the late afternoon downpour.
The firsts were facing Rawtenstall at the Log Cabin and skipper Travis Townsend won the toss, chose to bat and saw the Mount put on 244 for 9 from their rain-reduced 43 overs.
Travis Townsend
The club welcomed Farnworth Social Circle’s paid man Jamal Stuart as sub-pro this week and the big-hitting Barbadian – who hit five fours and three sixes – was unlucky to be given LBW while on 49.
Townsend was the day’s top scorer with a 63 (nine fours and two sixes) with Evan Williams also chipping in with a fine 56 (seven fours and two sixes).
The only other batsman to reach double figures was Callum Hunter who hit a useful 26.
As the rain rolled in at tea there was no way the Valley side were going to get a crack at overcoming that total and both teams had to settle for five points apiece.
Meanwhile, up at Rawtenstall, the second team also had to settle for five points.
The home side won the toss and elected to bat then went to town in hitting 270 for 9 from 45 overs.
Leading the way was Harry Etchells who blasted 111 with 14 fours and 2 sixes, followed by Abbaas Ahmed who hit 12 fours in his 72.
Ed Wackrill was the leading wicket-taker for the Mount with 4 for 64.
In reply there was a revised target of 167 from 22 overs, however, 12 overs in the heavens opened with the score on 86 for 1 and play was abandoned.
Stand-in skipper Kieran Edwards was unbeaten on 48 at the death.
There was no game for the third eleven at the weekend and they close their successful 2023 account with a trip to Nelson on Saturday.
The club’s final senior cricket match of the season will be played on Saturday when the title-winning third team travel to take on their Nelson counterparts. WP 12.30pm.
Chris Harrison’s food opening times:
Thursday: 5pm to 8pm
Friday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast and 2pm to 8pm
Saturday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast and 2pm to 8pm
Sunday: 9.30am to 12.30pm for breakfast and 1pm to 6pm.
The bar will be open:
Monday to Thursday: 4pm to 11pm
Friday: 1pm to 11pm
Saturday: 12 noon to 11pm
Sunday: 12 noon till 10.30pm
Sport on TV this week
Tuesday: 7.45pm Scotland v England (Football)
Wednesday: ODI Cricket 12.30pm (club opens 4pm) England v New Zealand
Friday: ODI Cricket: 12.30pm England v New Zealand; 8pm Football: Southampton v Leicester
Saturday: 12.30pm: Football: Wolves v Liverpool; 4.45pm: Rugby Union World Cup: Wales v Portugal; 5.30pm Football: Newcastle v Brentford. 8pm: Rugby Union World Cup: Ireland v Tonga.
Sunday: ODI Cricket 11am (club opens at 12 noon) England v New Zealand. 12.30pm: Football: Millwall v Leeds; 2pm Bournemouth v Chelsea; 4.30pm: Everton v Arsenal. 8pm: Rugby Union World Cup: 8pm: England v Japan.
Cask ales this week
The coming week’s selection will be beers from Bowland, Mallinsons and Brewsmith breweries.
The club are contemplating entering a team in the Ramsbottom and District Darts League this winter.
Matches will be played on Thursday evenings and the deadline for entering is September 14.
With that in mind, anyone prospective darters interested in signing up for the team should enter their name and details on the sheet at the bar in the members’ lounge as soon as possible.
After last weekend’s T20 success for the first eleven it was the turn of Mark Crowther’s youthful third team to take the plaudits when they secured the Lancashire League Third Eleven Division Three championship.
Victory at Thorneyholme Road, Accrington, put them in an unassailable position at the top of the league – reward for what has been a fantastic summer for the team.
After missing the opportunity to take the title in last Monday’s tied game against Lowerhouse, the thirds weren’t to be denied on Saturday.
Accrington won the toss and elected to bat but a combination of sharp fielding and good, steady bowling reduced the home side to 104 all out, one over short of their allotted 40.
Greenmount CC third team – Lancashire League Third Eleven Division Three champions
Max Birtwistle finished with fine figures of 4 for 9 from six overs while his brother Noah took 2 for 25, Ed Wackrill (2 for 13), Adam Clarke (1 for 21) and Ed Dickinson (1 for 17).
Ed Dickinson led the way in the run chase with 32 and he was aided by Chris Sherrington (unbeaten on 19), skipper Crowther (18) and Rupert Hallows (12) as the Accrington total was overhauled for six wickets inside 32 overs.
Cue the start of well-deserved celebrations!
On Sunday the firsts travelled to Nelson looking to keep pressure on the top teams in the vain hope they dropped enough points to let us in to the promotion places.
Although promotion wasn’t to be – Church and Middleton will be making the step up in 2024 – it was a convincing display at a sun-drenched Seedhill.
With Mount professional Jacques Snyman making an early return to South Africa, the club found a replacement in Tonge Cricket Club’s Sri Lankan paid man Hashan Dumindu and the talented all-rounder played his part in a nine-wicket victory.
Nelson won the toss and decided to bat but saw wickets fall on a regular basis.
Only former Greenmount professional Usman Tariq – the Nelson pro – showed any resilience with a knock of 46, indeed no other home batsman reached double figures as they slumped to 89 all out in the 29th over.
Evan Williams and Dumindu both took three wickets while there were two for skipper Travis Townsend and one each for Callum Hunter and Max Birtwistle.
Gareth Williams – five wickets
It was Williams (54 not out) and Dumindu (22 not out) who also did the business in the reply as they saw the Mount home for the loss of only one wicket in the 17th over.
Meanwhile the second team were taking on Nelson seconds at the Log Cabin but once again fell short despite a valiant effort.
Nelson won the toss and chose to bat, putting on 208 all out from 40.3 overs.
Chief wicket-taker was the evergreen Gareth Williams who helped himself to five victims with Matt Senior and Ed Dickinson taking two apiece and Luca Addleton one.
The reply started brightly when openers Nigel Franklin and Henry Dickinson put on 91 for the first wicket before Dickinson was adjudged to be LBW for 27.
Franklin was eventually dismissed after scoring 60 but the Mount failed to move the scoring along, fell behind the run rate and despite their best efforts, eventually finished eight short of victory at the end of their 45 overs.
Greenmount made a mockery of their Lancashire League Division Two status to blow away Burnley then leave Littleborough languishing as they defied the odds to take the JW Lees T20 Trophy back to their Log Cabin home.
Up against three teams from the league’s top division the Mount were unfancied in certain quarters but they showed all their true T20 qualities to make it a day to remember for the sizeable support that converged on Littleborough’s impressive Hare Hill ground.
Although a concerted promotion push has been somewhat hampered by rain throughout the ‘summer’, the club’s Friday night twenty-over exploits at the Cabin have been real highlight.
Regularly centre-stage on those occasions – as he has throughout the campaign – has been big-hitting professional Jacques Snyman and the popular professional chose Bank Holiday Monday’s finals day to sign off for the season in terrific style.
Mount faced Division One high-fliers Burnley in their semi-final and their skipper Liam Bedford won the toss and chose to bat.
But he would soon realise that this Greenmount side is no one-man show as fine restrictive bowling from the villagers kept the total down.
Mount skipper Travis Townsend is presented with the JWL T20 trophy@Fitchett’s Photography
Three of the Burnley opening batsmen were dismissed with the score on only 13 including influential South African professional Ockert Erasmus who was bowled by Callum Hunter.
Hunter finished with superb figures of 3 for 12 from his four overs with Evan Williams (2 for 17), Jack Thomond (1 for 25), Travis Townsend (0 for 25) and Snyman (0 for 23).
Burnley finished their innings with 108 for 6, a score that proved totally inadequate once the Greenmount innings took shape.
Tom Heaton opened with Snyman and the pairing despatched the ball with consummate ease to all compass points on the Hare Hill ground.
They took the total on to 81 before Heaton was caught by Fergus Bailey off the bowling of Gareth Halley.
The wicket only brought Williams (11 not out) to the crease and he and Snyman (54 not out) saw their side convincingly cruise to victory with more than eight overs remaining.
In the final hosts Littleborough awaited Greenmount after they had edged a close-fought derby victory against near-neighbours Rochdale in the earlier semi-final.
Mount skipper Townsend won the toss and decided to put his former side in to bat. It proved to be an inspired move.
The first three Littleborough batsmen were dismissed by the time the score reached 36 – shared equally between Hunter, Williams and Thomond.
Boro skipper Ryan Miskella tried to give his side some momentum with a useful 41 but a superb stumping by Matt Donnelly off the bowling of Townsend ended his exploits.
Steady bowling and some superb fielding, including fine catches by Hunter (to dismiss Joe Barnes) and Williams (to dismiss Williamson) began to demoralise the home side whose innings ended at 141 for 7.
All five Mount bowlers were among the wickets with Williams and Snyman taking two each with one apiece for Thomond, Hunter and Townsend.
The Greenmount reply got off to a bad start when Heaton was dismissed without troubling the scorer and the vociferous home support began to make their presence felt.
But they reckoned without Snyman and Williams who both showed their undoubted class to take the score to 118 before the pro bowed out for the season with 62.
Evan Williams is presented with his man-of-the-match award@Fitchett’s Photography
As the overs wound down, two more wickets, those of Williams (52) and Stevens (4), made it a somewhat tense conclusion and the Littleborough faithful were eyeing a second last ditch win of the day, but skipper Townsend (11 not out) – cool as you like – saw the Mount home in the 18th over.
Evan Williams picked up the man-of-the-match award for his exploits.
GREENMOUNT CC: Back row (from left): Dan Stevens, John Stevens (head of cricket), Andy Skinner (club chairman), Andy Kerr, Jack Thomond; Middle row (from left): Sam Greenhalgh, Callum Hunter: Front row (from left): Matt Donnelly, Max Birtwistle, Travis Townsend (captain), Jacques Snyman (pro), Evan Williams, Tom Heaton. @Fitchett’s Photography
League action at the weekend began on Saturday with the table-topping third team’s game at Colne that unfortunately had to be abandoned because of our old friend the rain.
Colne won the toss and elected to bat putting on 165 for 7 from their 40 overs.
Matthew Gilmore took 3 for 26 from six overs to head the bowling plaudits while there were two wickets apiece for both Adam Clarke and Luca Addleton.
The Greenmount reply stood at 17 for 0 from 9.1 overs before the heavens opened and play was called to a halt.
Skipper Travis Townsend
On Sunday at the Log Cabin the first team – looking to keep the pressure on the teams above them – warmed up for their Bank Holiday T20 final appearance with a commanding ten-wicket triumph over Bacup in a game that was reduced to 38 overs.
Skipper Travis Townsend won the toss, decided to field and put in a masterly bowling display that yielded him six wickets for only 28 runs as the visitors were despatched to 107 all out.
After their first opener departed with the score on six, Bacup moved their total on to 61 before losing their second wicket. But from then on it was a steady procession back to the Cabin.
Callum Hunter helped himself to two victims with Evan Williams and Jack Thomond picking up one apiece.
In reply Bacup found Mount professional Jacques Snyman in terrific form once again and his unbeaten 83 saw him sail past the 1,000 Lancashire League runs for the season mark.
Jacques was aided and abetted by Evan Williams (21 not out) who reached the 500 runs for the season milestone during his innings.
Bacup were put out of their misery in the fifteenth over.
The result leaves the Mount in fourth place in the table, thirteen points behind the promotion places with two games to go.
Meanwhile, the second eleven’s miserable season continued with a six-wicket defeat at Todmorden.
Stand-in skipper Nigel Franklin won the toss and elected to bat but his luck disappeared from then on as he was adjudged to be LBW for a first ball duck.
Tom Clarke’s 29 was the highlight of the Mount innings and they struggled to 102 all out with only Ed Dickinson (12) and Paul Manley (13) joining Tom in double figures.
Kai Abbas hit an unbeaten 71 in the Todmorden reply as they eased home at 106 for 4 in the eighteenth over.
The victory earned the Yorkshire side promotion to the Lancashire League Second Eleven Division One.
Another team who were looking to secure promotion at the weekend were Greenmount’s third eleven but things didn’t go quite as planned for Mark Crowther’s side on Bank Holiday Monday.
Seeking the win that would assure them elevation to Division Two, from a strong position the thirds contrived to tie their game against Lowerhouse fourths at the Log Cabin.
After being put into bat, Lowerhouse scored 157 for 4 from their 40 overs with Noah Birtwistle taking two wickets and Ben Clarke and Ewan Malone one each.
At 139 for six with more than eight overs remaining it looked a good bet that promotion could have been clinched there and then, but despite skipper Crowther carrying his bat for an unbeaten 50, a calamitous end to the Mount innings resulted in them failing to overhaul the visitors’ total – albeit a single run would have done it.
Hopefully, promotion will now have to wait until next Saturday when the thirds travel to Accrington (12.30pm).
And so to August Bank Holiday weekend and the last three league matches of the season.
But this year we have the added excitement of T20 Finals Day at Littleborough on Monday and we sadly bid the fondest of farewells to our professional Jacques Snyman.
Jacques in familiar pose despatching another to the boundary
It’s fair to say that Jacques has had an enormous impact on the club this summer which far outweighs his 1346 runs and 50 wickets delivered so far.
He’s been seen coaching in the nets nearly every day, has played the part of mentor with many of our young players and has attended and supported many junior and third team matches through the summer.
The time has flown since April and we’ve seen some heroic performances including the league record individual score of a whopping 269 not out and the epic T20 run chase at Norden with another unbeaten 164.
On a personal level Jacques is also a top bloke all round and we will hopefully enjoy a last blast this weekend before he and his lovely family depart.
It will not be long before we see them again for more adventures! Thanks Jacques , Erin and Leyah, your home is always at the Mount!
As we anticipate the weekend there’s also the anxiety that another Sunday rain off may await as the weather has really dampened the mood of the summer.
Despite our current league position there’s many reasons to reflect positively on the progress made outside our league place.
Third team skipper Mark Crowther
As we write the third team are sitting in pole position with Captain Crowther’s Kids suffering only one loss.
Our under 13 and 15 teams are both top of their respective age groups with five Lancashire county representatives and three inter-league players in the group.
We’ve also seen very young players playing in the second team where we’ve had availability and experience gaps most weeks and they will be better for it next year.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the best moments in the sunshine (most were in June) but there’s a few more chapters of the summer yet to play out.
Season finishes on 10th September, come down and see what’s in store until then and give the lads your best support as always.
We hope to see as many of you as possible over the weekend, let’s give Jacques a send off befitting his heroics and commitment to the club .
On Friday evening (25th August) all members, officials and players are invited to say farewell to popular professional Jacques Snyman and his family on the occasion of his final weekend at the club for 2023.
Jacques Snyman
The South African has made a massive impression with some swashbuckling performances at the Log Cabin this summer and the club is hoping for a great turnout to show appreciation for his efforts on and off the field.
The event is being held in the function room and entrance is free. There will be music and a karaoke, a buffet and if anyone has a particularly ‘bad shirt’ they are being encouraged to wear it!
We hope for a terrific attendance to see off Jacques in true Greenmount style!
