PROFESSIONAL Saeed Anwar was the toast of Greenmount when he led them to their first Hamer Cup final triumph.

The village club's previous three unsuccessful appearances were put firmly into the history books with a superb six wicket triumph over Bolton League champions Tonge at Horwich.

The young Pakistan paid man fully deserved his man-of-the-match accolade with a superb unbeaten innings of 78 to go with his crucial 5 for 49 with the ball.

The Bolton side won the toss, elected to bat but were soon in trouble when Nigel Hallows and skipper Simon Anderton were back in the pavilion with only one run on the board.

Both fell to superb catches from Jimmy Horrox off the bowling of Anwar and paceman Mark Stewart.

It was just the breakthrough that Greenmount needed and they made sure the pressure was kept on throughout the innings.

Aussie pen Dave Celep hung around for a useful 36 and was supported well by Rick Northrop (20) but the cracks were beginning to show in Tonge batting line-up and only Ahmed Kurshid, with 28, offered any resistance later in the innings.

Their total of 133 was always going to be insufficient given the class batting line up that Greenmount currently boast.

However they suffered a shock early in the reply when big hitting Aussie amateur Mick O'Rourke became Iqbal Sikander's first victim after scoring only one.

Opener Andy Williams fell for 14 and skipper Gary Chadwick without scoring but that brought Anwar and Horrox to the crease.

As heavy drizzle had spectators wondering if the game would have to be curtailed the pair of them began to take apart the Tonge attack, Horrox adding 27.

As the Bolton side began to look demoralised the result was never in doubt and Anwar put them out of their misery with a huge six over the scoreboard for the winning runs.

Skipper Chadwick paid tribute to the young professional after the game saying: "That was a great performance,"

"He just did what a professional is meant to do, shoulder the responsibility on the pitch.

"His bowling performance helped us dismiss Tonge for what looked a lowly score, but it still needed some reaching, especially after we lost O'Rourke early in the reply."