GETTING married can be stressful -- and expensive.

So too can starting up your own business, not to mention moving house -- or emigrating.

Adam Dale can vouch for it. He did all four -- in the same month!

Now that's busy.

Little wonder it took the cricket star a week or three to settle into life in Rossendale as the new paid hand of Bacup CC.

However, two months on, Adam is more than happy with how things have panned out.

Domestically, his family -- new wife Nickie and their two daughters Molly, three and Georgia, two -- are very much at home in East Lancashire.

And professionally? Well, as for the merits of Adam's cricket performances all you really need to do is check out with the batsmen of the Lancashire League. No-one has taken more wickets in the League this season (46 before this weekend's action) and with half the campaign still to run he is bang on course for the magical ton of victims.

Stop. Rewind.

Let's take things back to April. "Gee, that was some month even by our standards," laughed Adam, almost cringing at the recollection. "Although we had been together for ages, Nickie and I decided to get married.

"Then we moved home in Queensland just about the same week as I was getting involved in the new financial business and shortly before we packed our suitcases to head over to the other side of the world. "Phew, I get a little breathless just recalling it. Our feet didn't touch the ground, but we had planned it all in and there was no-one else to blame.

"The first priority on arriving was to get everyone settled -- a big thank-you here for the people at Bacup who made things so straightforward in that respect.

"Then it was a case of getting stuck into the cricket and after a slowish start things have really fallen into place of late for both collectively and individually.

"I am happy with my own form but I am only interested in the end result for the team.

"As professional, it is sometimes easy to get side-tracked into concentrating too much on achieving personal goals, but this is not my style. If you get caught up in all of that you lose sight of the main objectives.

"As the paid guy the pressure is on to deliver but that can be so much more than runs and wickets and I like to think then when I leave here some of the players will have developed their own game from playing with me.

"We underachieved at the start, but we have pulled ourselves up by the old bootlaces and now stand about halfway in the ladder.

"But we aim to continue climbing and there is plenty of time left. I believe this to be an open competition -- no team looks runaway champion material and, with the professionals all very capable guys, it is very even.

"It is also refreshing to see a league and a group of clubs who want to play so much. Sometimes the elements (weather) can get in the way of actually playing the game as rules can be so tight. "Here it seems slanted towards getting out onto the pitch and getting on with things and I like that."

Adam also likes to get a round -- of golf -- and is is not short of playing partners.

"Matty (Mott), Jason (Gillespie), Ben (Johnson) and Dan (Marsh) are among the guys who gather once a week and hack around the course.

"Dan is the pick of the punch, playing off a three handicap -- I am a standard 18-handicap golfing cricketer, but I enjoy the game and the craic."

Adam, now turned 30, and a fast-medium right arm swing bowler with an impressive track record, first played league cricket in England a decade ago.

"I joined Droylsden in the Saddleworth League, but it was a bit too early for me, I was too young. The experience is much better this time round, I am really enjoying it."

Between stints here, much has happened. Adam has represented Australia around 30 times at both Test and one-day international level. He was a member of his country's World Cup winning squad in 1999 and you can also throw in a couple of Shield triumphs back home with Queensland.

Main highlights?

"Got to be my first Test appearance, no cricketer will ever forget that. Mine came against India in Bangalore, where we won our first Test on the sub-continent in years and I was lucky enough to knock a couple of their guys over."

Like who?

"Ganguly for one and also Tendulkar. I will always remember the day I clean bowled Tendulkar."

(Hey, don't tell anyone that it was more a case of he had a swing and missed it, or the fact that he was on 177 at the time -- tends to spoil the story)!"