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Greenmount Cricket Club is delighted to announce the retention of South African professional Jacques Snyman for season 2024.

Jacques is an explosive batter and excellent all rounder who has delivered numerous entertaining performances already this season.

Members at the Mount have already witnessed some stunning hitting including an all-time Lancashire League record score of 269 not out and an unforgettable run chase in the T20 at Norden against all odds.

Jacques has really integrated into the club along with his family and has shown an incredible commitment to junior player development.

He’s already achieved 1000 runs for the season and with ten league games to go will continue to spearhead our promotion challenge.

It goes without saying we are all absolutely delighted that you are staying Jacques, definitely a part of the Mount family!

Greenmount bludgeoned their way into the Finals Day of the JW Lees T20 KO on Friday night with a stunning batting display at the Mount.

Batting first on a lovely track, professional Jacques Snyman set the tone following the early loss of Tom Heaton for a brisk 10.

In just 24 balls Jacques hammered 70 with five sixes while Evan Williams supported with sensible strike rotation.

But Evan then decided that he could adopt the aggressive role and he exploded into a sublime knock which yielded 83 from just 40 balls with an amazing eight sixes.

Indeed, such was the nature of his innings it was like having another professional on show!

As if that was not enough, skipper Travis Townsend continued a recent rich vein of form hammering 67 not out from 32 balls with another five sixes.

There was still time for a little cameo from Andy Kerr who hit two sixes in a score of 31 from just 14 balls before being bowled with four balls remaining.

Dan Stevens entered the arena for those last 4 balls and smashed an unbeaten nine to raise the score past 280 and set a daunting target of 284 to win.

Enfield gave the chase a spirited charge but in truth were never going to sustain a rate of over 16 per over and once Cal Hunter and Evan set the tone with tight bowling it was more about fun in the sun as the innings played out 118 runs short.

Wickets were shared around the attack with two for Tom Heaton and one apiece for Evan, Max Birtwistle, Jack Thomond, Travis  and Jacques.

The evening was topped with the announcement that Jacques has re-signed for 2024.

And so to Finals Day for the very first time and another chapter in what’s becoming a memorable season with some blistering entertainment.

Reserve the date in your calendar, Monday 28th August, venue to be announced between Rochdale, Burnley, Littleborough and Greenmount.

Thanks to everyone who supported and especially to those who helped on an incredibly busy night.

The Greenmount Grill with Master Chef Birty and Matt Clarke ably helped by Wes Young, Nigel Franklin and Josh Birtwistle (with thanks to Juan!) and the Bottle Bar with Dave and Jo plus the raffle with Leigh and his assistants.

Well done and thanks to all our staff and Chris for keeping it all together through the night and of course to DJ Skins for music and comedy!

Finally – Sammy Greenhalgh happy birthday that’s a party to remember!  See you all on August 28th!

Continuing our Ashes Summer theme after the visit of Merv Hughes, we now welcome Mark Taylor home to Greenmount CC.

Mark remains our most successful professional from his famous stay in 1988 which saw us win the Bolton League while he racked up over 1300 runs at an average of 70.

Mark went on to score 17,415 first class runs, achieved a test match best score of 334 not out, 104 test caps for Australia with 19 test centuries and 40 fifties.

He’s widely acknowledged as one of the top test captains and is now a broadcaster for Sky where he often references “his” Greenmount.

Mark will spend an evening with us on Friday 14th July between the Headingley and Old Trafford test matches, admission will be strictly by ticket only and the price is just £10.

This will be a very popular event and demand is already high so to secure your ticket please either reply to the ‘all membership’ email from Helen stating the quantity required or contact John Stevens directly.

Orders will be fulfilled with tickets placed in an envelope behind the members’ bar. Payment is cash only and must be made in advance of the evening.

It would be fantastic to see as many of the 1988 team at this evening to relive some amazing memories during a special season where this generation of the club is creating their own story.

Unfortunately, we need to add a couple of restrictions for this event – we are unable to open to children under the age of 16 and insist that strictly no dogs allowed. Thanks for your understanding on both counts.

Looking forward to another memorable evening at The Mount!

Yesterday’s century at Rishton saw Greenmount’s professional Jacques Snyman reach over 1000 runs in all competitions – just over halfway through the season!

Jacques has been a credit to the club since signing and has provided spectators with numerous special innings, including his most memorable record breaking 269* (139) against Accrington.

Averaging 99.27 from 15 innings, his current 1092 runs includes four 50’s and four 100’s at a whopping strike rate of 168.

Not only contributing on the pitch, but Jacques’ full commitment to the club and also his willingness to develop the youngsters coming through with timeless hours spent coaching has been clear for all to see. 

We look forward to seeing what the rest of the  season has in store but for now, a huge congratulations to Jacques from everyone at the club on reaching 1000 runs.

Friday was a washout as the early season poor weather returned with a vengeance so the highly anticipated T20 quarter final is rearranged for this week!

Be there in your numbers and get behind the team as we look to qualify for the prestigious finals day on 28th August.

On to Sunday and a potential banana skin at a green and soggy Rishton pitch.

As Travis lost the toss it was no surprise that we batted first but the score of 265-7 belied the sticky batting conditions.

The highlight of the innings was another century for professional Jacques Snyman who reached 1000 runs for the season.

What a special season he’s having, 1092 runs at 99.27, four centuries and four fifties, we need him to keep up this rich vein of form for the season run in with just ten league  games remaining.

There was also a very welcome return from Travis who carved out an excellent 61 from just 50 balls to ensure momentum was maintained.

The Rishton reply was sufficiently spirited to ensure we ended up without maximum points but still climbed to fourth place.

Callum Hunter rounded off an excellent all round display adding to his effective unbeaten 24 with his first five wicket haul of the season.

Cal had four bowled and one LBW and included the scalp of professional Dale Phillips first ball, he is now top of the league bowling charts for amateur bowlers – a fantastic performance season to date.

Unfortunately we couldn’t prise out the last two wickets and the game ended with Rishton 43 runs short.

It’s a big weekend to come at the Mount as we host Crompton on Sunday. Our opponents lie in third place just six points ahead and the top two teams Church and Middleton face off the same day.

The fight for promotion is well and truly on and as we enter this last ten game run it’s all to play for and promises to be an exciting few weeks.

Meanwhile, after last week’s victory the second team lost at home to Rishton in a game which mirrored the shape of the first team encounter.

Rishton posted 264, helped by an unbeaten century from opener Adam Hussain and unfortunately an incredible 35 wides from the Greenmount attack.

Wickets came the way of Richard Catterall (2) Luca Addleton (2) Ewan Malone (2) while Matt Senior and Nigel Hallows claimed one apiece.

There wasn’t enough legs in the Mount response and we finished 52 short. A number of batters got themselves in, Jake Chadwick top scored with 46, Nigel Franklin 29, Matt Senior 26, Kieran Edwards 23 and a welcome show of form from Nigel Hallows with a fine 34 but unfortunately nobody played the lead knock to score big and get us over the line.

With ten games to go, we are currently bottom of the league but the goal remains to change fortunes and climb up towards mid-table as the week’s progress. Starting this week away at Crompton.

There was no third team match this week after last week’s excitement and sadly the planned fourth team match with Prestwich was another victim of the poor mid-summer weather. Let’s hope for a return of the warm and sunny stuff sooner than later!

Tonight’s (Friday’s) T20 quarter-final tie against Enfield at the Log Cabin has been postponed due to the heavy rain.

The match will now be played on the reserve date next Friday (July 7th) at 6pm.

Club chairman Andy Skinner said: “The rain has been coming down all day and is forecast to continue right through, so it makes sense to call it off early.

“We contacted opponents Enfield and they are in complete agreement with the decision.”

While the cancellation is a disappointment given the organisation involved, the club hope people will attend next week when – hopefully – the weather is more agreeable.

Despite tonight’s postponement, the club bar will be open until 11pm and Harrison’s will be serving food until 8pm.

Following the ten-over scamper to victory over Ramsbottom on Friday, the table-topping third team took centre stage at Walsden on Saturday.

Having bowled the opposition out for just 60 in the previous encounter, confidence was high, however Walsden had bolstered their line-up and posted a challenging score of 201.

Greenmount’s young bowling attack stuck to the task with Noah Birtwistle taking 3-26, Luca Addleton 2-36 and both Ed Wackrill and Ryan Edge one apiece.

Captain Mark Crowther was still receiving deserved and merciless stick for losing the toss yet again however he turned this around emphatically with the lead role in an excellent and exciting run chase.

Tom Clarke and Noah put on 58 for the first wicket before Tom fell for 32. A flurry of wickets followed including Noah for 26 and the Mount rocked at 103-6.

But skipper Crowther was in belligerent form and, joined by Leigh Dickinson, the pair accelerated in a partnership of 77 for the seventh wicket.

Crowther was run out for an excellent 54 leaving Leigh to steer the innings to a dramatic conclusion. Leigh had reached an unbeaten 46 and in the final over it was do or die but Luca Addleton stole the plaudits at the death with a firecracker six to stun the locals and seal memorable victory.

There is allegedly still a manhunt going on in Walsden for one Vasco Wackrill however it would appear he escaped safely over the border in one piece! Top of the league at the turnaround, Crowther’s Kids march on!

On to Sunday and another forecast of afternoon showers and thunderstorms as the first team traveled to Rawtenstall and the seconds hosted the same club.

As the news came in that Greenmount were batting first it was surprising to learn that we’d won the toss with rain around but Jacques Snyman and Evan Williams soon set about the Rawtenstall bowling with strong intent, racing to an opening stand of 70 before Snyman was caught for another fine 56 including four sixes.

Evan continued his recent fine form which included a century for the MCC on tour to Ireland last week however as the spinners were introduced we began to lose wickets in alarming fashion.

Andy Kerr, Tom Heaton, Travis Townsend and Dan Stevens all perished for 30 between them before Ryan Senior steadied the ship with a dogged unbeaten 15, accompanied by Sam Greenhalgh in similarly obdurate mood but what neither did was surrender their wickets easily.

Heavy rain curtailed the innings ten overs short however we were left to defend 138 following the “easy to understand“ DLS calculation.

With echoes of Friday night and defending a short boundary, the Mount dug in to constrain the chase, taking wickets at just the right time to arrest momentum.

Jacques turned in another five star performance, answering the mildly unruly heckling from the local fans with a five wicket haul.

The last over definitely came under “squeaky bum“ moments and I guess you could call it an ugly win but we take it and move on to another away trip to Rishton next week.

At the turnaround point of the season we still lie in sixth place with 78 points. Just 13 points separate the top seven teams and we are just nine points away from top spot so it was an especially important win to maintain touch.

The second team lifted themselves off bottom slot with a fine home win. Put in after Oli Dixon lost the toss Greenmount’s batting once again stuttered to 156 with Kie Edwards hitting 84, his third successive half century.

Faltering on 74-6 , Kie and Oli repaired the innings in an important stand of 60 before Oli was stumped for 15.

Rawtenstall found it heavy going against Matthew Senior who bowled a miserly seven overs for just five runs although only one wicket he passed the bat multiple times.

Oli turned in his best performance of the season to date and ripped through the middle order with a fine five wicket haul, 5-34 from his 12 overs.

He was well supported by Richard Catterall with 3-31 and there was a pantheresque run out for Kie to complete the victor . Ewan Malone held on to two fine catches.

The seconds now host Rishton who have replaced us at the bottom spot. We really need the more senior players to be available more consistently so we can start to field a more experienced and competitive team on a regular basis.

This game proved the point that we do not belong at the bottom of any league so let’s get a strong second half of the season and climb the ladder as far as we can.

Final note just to say thanks to everyone who turned out to either work , support or cheer on Friday night – we hope to see you all again this Friday for the T20 quarter final against Enfield.

A substantial crowd gathered for the hugely anticipated T20 clash with neighbours Ramsbottom last night (Friday) but once again poor weather threatened to dampen the mood.
However, mindful of the large crowd, umpires and players agreed to a ten-over bash in the rain.

Not sure Skins has recovered from this decision but the crowd seemed to like it and soon the benches and veranda were full.

The Greenmount Grill and Bottle Bar were rocking and so was DJ Rick with “something for everyone“ grooves from the scorebox.

Credit to Harry Caton and the Ramsbottom team who put up a good fielding performance in difficult and slippery conditions, but nothing could contain Mount pro Jacques Snyman who delivered another great show of pyrotechnics.

Losing Tom Heaton in the first over, Jacques was joined by Dan Stevens for eight overs of fun, striking six sixes in a 25-ball 65.

Dan compiled a supportive 15 in a stand of 78 with one six of his own before a flurry of wickets left the Mount just shy of 100 from ten.

Ramsbottom came out of the traps strongly with Brad Fielding striking the ball well before falling to former team mate Jack Thomond, caught brilliantly by Jacques for an excellent 38.

New pro Bilal Asif threatened to break loose but was also the victim of a fantastic catch in the deep from Jacques.

Indeed, Greenmount held all their catches in the rain with another from Jacques to complete a hat-trick and fine grabs from Travis and Tom.

The bowlers all stuck to the task well and the visitors ended just eight runs short – the last three overs were executed really well with no opportunities for the batters to free their arms and we completed a full five out of five wins in unusual circumstances.

Thanks to everyone who came out in the mizzle to support the team.

STOP PRESS: The Mount will now entertain Enfield in the T20 quarter-finals next Friday evening with a reserve date for Friday, July 7.

It’s a shorter round up than usual this week reflecting the intervention of weather which yet again left a sense of disappointment and anti-climax to the weekend .

Friday saw a bright start as the first team sealed qualification for the first time into the quarter finals of the T20 competition with a fourth consecutive win, this time at Bacup.

Batting first, the home side were checked on 120-8 with Jacques Snyman bagging 4-12 and one wicket apiece for Cal, Evan, Tom and Jack.

The Greenmount reply was complete in ten overs for the loss of just three wickets. Skipper Travis Townsend top scored with 35 not out while there were cameo knocks from Tom Heaton (27), Jacques (24), Evan (10) and Andy Kerr (16 not out). A final group home tie with Ramsbottom awaits this Friday before the quarter finals on 30th June.

Saturday saw the visit of a very young Lowerhouse fourth team against our league-leading thirds in a match which ended all too early – the visitors dismissed for just 60.

Bowling plaudits went to Adam Clarke 3-11, Noah Birtwistle 2-6, Sam Woolley 2-8 and there was a wicket apiece for Ben Clarke and Nigel (yes folks that’s Nigel not Rupert!) Hallows.

The Greenmount reply saw another emphatic partnership between Rupert Hallows and Tom Clarke to seal another win by 10 wickets. Rupert finished 33 not out and Tom 18 not out. The third team have a narrow lead over Rawtenstall at the top and travel to bottom-placed Walsden this weekend.

On Sunda , the visit of bottom-placed Nelson offered opportunity to the first team to extend their recent winning streak and further close the gap at the top.

As it was, the weather this week turned out to be the winner but now only nine points separate six teams at the top with the final match of the first half to play this weekend.

Meanwhile Nelson were bowled out for 150 – another four wickets for Jacques – Callum also took four with one apiece for Jack Thomond and Travis. Greenmount were unable to reply due to the torrential rain.

The seconds started the day with optimism and a strong team but finished it nursing another loss and propping up the division.

Batting first, Greenmount compiled 190 with a fine 96 from Kieran Edwards the highlight which included four sixes. Unfortunately Nelson reached the target in just 27 overs, matters made worse through illness for Jake Chadwick and injury to Danny Hornby. We move on to host Rawtenstall this weekend .

A rather anti climactic weekend BUT third team still lead their league, firsts are in T20 quarters and just nine points off top spot so lots to play for starting this week!

No more thunder and lightning please!

After the incredible performance of the previous week, the fun continued last Thursday at the Mount with the visit to the club of the infamous, original Australian pantomime villain Merv Hughes.

We had a few of our own villains turn out in an Over-50s Legends match and there were most likely a few aches and pains the next day but a good time was had by all.
On to T20 away to Norden on Friday who are a daunting opponent packed with talent. We were unfortunately without Tom Heaton Cal Hunter and Sam Greenhalgh for this one, but Sam Woolley stepped up for his senior debut and second team skipper Ollie Dixon came in to support the bowling attack.

The game was watched by an enthusiastic crowd in the bar via a live stream and a packed crowd witnessed an amazing match and yet another mind blowing performance from professional Jacques Snyman (pictured right).

The match began with a hint of special things to come when Max Birtwistle removed the dangerous Tolley in the first over.

However, Ashar Zaidi is an equally dangerous customer and he plundered an excellent 91, the main contribution of a challenging 206 total.

Oh hang on – the target is now 245 amid gasps from the bar, how does that work? Did an invisible batter make 39 nobody noticed in the excitement?

No, the Mount were punished for a slow over rate and the calculation presented a daunting target.

However, nobody told Evan Williams it was challenging as he set the tone with Jacques, smoking 30 from 19 before falling to Sami Waheed.

We then lost Dan Stevens and Travis Townsend in quick succession but Andy Kerr was in the mood from the word go and played a brilliant hand in supporting Jacques with a fine 32 from just 21 balls.

Meanwhile – devastating, brutal , sheer power was on show at the other end as Jacques smote the Norden bowling to all parts of Stag Park .

An incredible 13 sixes and 13 fours saw him amass 164 not out from 70 balls and close the game out with four balls to spare.

Top of the league, three wins from three with two to play, a quarter-final place in sight for the first time. What a performance, no superlatives can capture how brilliant was this knock. Let’s continue to enjoy it!

On Saturday, a slightly more sedate pace in searing heat saw the third eleven, with the return of Captain Crowther,  also capture the top of the table spot with a win over high-flying Nelson.

Fielding first, the tone was set by a fine delivery from Noah Birtwistle to bowl their opener first ball. Wickets fell steadily including a wonderful running catch from Wes Young (fee payable for additional superlatives but there was no dive involved!), fine bowling all round with Noah and Adam Clarke collecting three wickets apiece, Sam Woolley pitched in with two, and there was one apiece for Rupert Hallows and Ed Dickinson.
Highlight of the Greenmount reply was a fine 52 not out from Rupert Hallows who responded brilliantly to a slightly over-zealous opponent by letting the bat speak for him!

There was an excellent contribution from Tom Clarke with 23 not out which saw us comfortably home by eight wickets after Ed Dickinson (24), and Wes Young (13), also chipped in. The table-topping thirds will be at home again this week to Lowerhouse.

Sunday’s matches returned to the vagaries of weather and Duckworth Lewis as flash storms interrupted the glorious weather with the ground turning quickly to a lake just long enough for second team opponents Todmorden to say “no chance“, shake hands and head for the hills from what was most likely a winning position – only for the ground to be clear and dry within an hour!

Greenmount had been bowled out for a disappointing 152, the highlight being a return to the crease for Kieran Edwards, following his release from the bathroom, with a fine 43.

Ed Wackrill joined Kie for a very fine support performance of 24 including a lovely six over cover from a free hit.

Meanwhile, at Bacup, the first team delivered their best bowling and fielding performance of the season to skittle the opposition for just 93.

There were two wickets apiece for Evan, Cal and Jack Thomond while Jacques took 4-14 from five overs.

Travis took the gloves in Tom’s absence and poached two catches and a stumping.

Our reply was suitably clinical with 54-0 from just nine overs before rain arrived in buckets with Evan not out with a belligerent 36 and Jacques 16.

Following the usual confusion about a recalibration of targets, once the rain cleared we went out to complete the win and bring 12 points home.

We are now still in sixth place but there’s only nine points separating six teams so the last three weeks has seen consecutive wins eat away at the gap and bring us right into the challenging pack.

Including the T20 it’s now six from six in this mid-season mini campaign and we now move on to this week’s opponents Bacup once again on Friday before we entertain Nelson on Sunday.

Thanks again to all our supporters, keep behind the team and enjoy the ride!