ACCRINGTON celebrate their 150th anniversary this season and vow not to prop up the league for the second year running.

The men from Thorneyholme are sick of being the Lancashire League's whipping boys and aim to make this a year to remember - in more ways than one!

On the eve of the first double header of the season against Bacup and undefeated Lowerhouse, chairman Peter Barrett said: "We have a lot of celebrations planned for the season but the best of the lot would be to have a half decent campaign.

"Despite our form in recent seasons there is tremendous spirit at this club which you may find hard to believe at times. But we have a new pro and are quietly confident we can achieve something this year."

However, this season has started off with two defeats. So new professional Chad Grainger could be forgiven for thinking this is something of a baptism of fire in his first full season in the league.

Skipper Brian Holmes thinks the South African batsman is up to the challenge.

He said: "Chad may only be 23 but he has bags of enthusiasm and from what we have seen is a decent looking player. I don't think he will be under any extra pressure, but we have set ourselves a target of six to eights wins this year and we will be looking for him to weigh in with his fair share of runs."

Fixtures:

Saturday May 4: Accrington v Bacup, Burnley v Rishton, East Lancs v Church, Nelson v Haslingden, Ramsbottom v Colne, Rawtenstall v Enfield, Todmorden v Lowerhouse.

Sunday May 6: Bacup v East Lancashire, Church v Burnley, Colne v Rawtenstall, Enfield v Ramsbottom, Haslingden v Todmorden, Lowerhouse v Accrington, Rishton v Nelson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.