A future Test cricketer emerges in the Bolton League in 1986

By Mike Latham

It's amazing what you find when you have time to go in your loft. In the 1980s I was an avid cricket photographer in the days long before digital photography.

I’d set myself up at cover point or mid-on on the boundary at Bolton League cricket grounds with my Praktica camera, balanced precariously on a monopod and snap away.

‘Did you get that?’ a fielder would ask me after taking a catch. ‘Hope so,’ I’d reply.

On the Monday you’d go to Max Spielmann, hand in your film and then return anxiously three days later, hoping you’d captured the key action- or, even worse, installed the film correctly. Either way you’d pay a set fee for 24, 36, 48 images. A wasted image was a costly image.

Here are a few from the Bolton League game between Westhoughton and Little Lever, May 1986 at Westhoughton’s historic old ground, The Tyldesleys, sadly now covered by a supermarket.

It’s amazing how different life was in the mid-1980s to how it is now.

One of my dad’s friends, Dennis Lyddon went watching England on their tour of India in 1984-85. Dennis was a stalwart of the Bolton League and the Little Lever club- one of the Bolton League’s trophies is named after him.

Dennis was a cricketing badger. In between the third Test in Calcutta and the fourth in Madras most of the tour party he went with occupied themselves with cultural matters. Not Dennis- he went to the three-day game between South Zone and England at Secunderabad.

While there, he saw a good left arm spinner, then aged 20, Venkat Raman. He batted no10 but scored runs in both innings and took seven wickets in the game, including David Gower and Mike Gatting.

Dennis approached him. ‘Do you fancy playing for Little Lever in the Bolton League?’ he asked. On getting a positive reply he made the arrangements, and Raman duly arrived for the 1986 season, replacing the estimable Grant Long- a South African who became a stalwart of the league- as pro.

Can you imagine doing that now? You’d have to jump through hoops with agents and visa issues and the price of cricketers is far different nowadays.

Raman settled quickly into life in Bolton and the highly competitive nature of the league.

He scored 622 runs at 28 and took 85 wickets at 15 that year.

The experience certainly did him good, and maybe that chance meeting with Dennis shaped his cricketing education.

He went on to play Test matches for India over a ten-year period but developed more as a batsman than a bowler, moving up the order and opening the batting or batting in the first five.

In this game Westhoughton, batting first, were 125 all out, West Indies pro Collis King c Costello b Raman 15. Raman took 7-36 in 24 overs of class bowling.

Westhoughton opener and non league footballer Graham Hill, c Hallows b Bacon 7

Westhoughton wicketkeeper and opener P Jones c Gregson b Bacon 9

 Raman weaves his magic on washing day in Westhoughton

Mind that car, as Raman takes 7-36

Raman wasn’t required to bat, Nigel Hallows leading the victory charge with an unbeaten 78 as the visitors won by 8 wickets. Dennis would have been happy that night.

Incidentally, the Westhoughton opener, Graham Hill, seen here caught at slip in my photo, was an outstanding non league defender and played for Leigh RMI in their famous FA Cup first round tie against Kevin Keegan's Fulham in Nov 1998. Fulham won the replay at Hilton Park, 2-0 in front of the Sky cameras and a crowd of 7,125.

Looking at my photos of the day a couple of questions arise. Why did so many people in Westhoughton do their washing on a Saturday afternoon, and why park your car on the boundary edge with a left arm spinner bowling to a strong Westhoughton batting line-up that included the great Collis King?