A NEW Cricket trophy will honour the memory of an amateur player whose batting record still stands 50 years after he set it.

In July of 1950, council highways worker Robert Thompson scored 130 not out in 16 overs for Charles Baynes' works team against Nomads in the Blackburn Mid Week League.

Now his widow Hilda, son Neil and daughter Tracy Hartland have been honoured with a specially made glass vase engraved with his name and his total, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his feat.

Tracy said: "I think he would be really pleased. When I was little he always used to go on about this record he still held. I think even he would have expected it to have been beaten by now, but it still stands."

Mr Thompson, a former Bolton soccer apprentice, kept the match ball, and the family still has it.

The family are now to sponsor a new award in his name for the Blackburn Mid Week Cricket League, the Robert Thompson Trophy for the highest individual score.

League secretary Nigel Ingham said: "This record is very unlikely to be beaten in my opinion, although one of our batsmen got 123 recently before he was caught, and he had been on target."

He added: "We thought as a committee it would be nice to commemorate it on our presentation night, and in turn his family agreed to sponsor a trophy for the player who gets the highest score each season.

"That will help to keep Robert Thompson's name tied to the league."