WESTMORLAND League aficionado John Glaister casts an eye on the teams’ progress moving into the second part of the season.

IN SEEMINGLY the nick of time it takes a keeper to whip off the bails for a stumping, the Westmorland Cricket League has just passed its halfway point. It’s a pity the winter doesn’t pass as quickly.

The top-flight championship is following its predicted path almost to the point where there are two divisions in one.

At the halfway point, the top three had all in excess of 100 points while the bottom three fewer than half of that.

Either Warton, Westgate or Arnside will be champions, but with more 135 points still available it is too close to call.

The bookmakers probably have Westgate as slight favourites for two reasons.

The incomparable Peter Wilson is back to a full-time team committment and their strength in depth as a club is second to none.

In the upcoming holiday seasons any loss of personnel can be easuly assauged.

Bowlers win championships and Warton’s chances may well depend on the fitness of James Rafferty who has laboured all season with injury.

With their batting looking suspect, Rafferty’s partnership with captain Graham Crowther will be critical.

The lakc of penetrative bowling may prove to be Arnside’s achilles heel.

With the inclusion of Kevin Howarth, who is in the process of re-writing the record, they possess the strongest of batting line-ups.

On their excellent wicket, however,most teams can resist their bowling which lacks a cutting edge.

Shireshead and Milnthorpe haboured pre-season thought of glory but both look to be out of it.

At Milnthorpe it is their age-old problem. They lost their first two games and immediately had to start playing catch-up.

Father Time may also be having his say in the squad.

Similarly, Shireshead have already lost a third of their games and at the same time are going through a period of transition.

Burneside will be disappointed at not making more of an impact this season, wheras Heysham are doing better than anticipated after the loss of key players.

Silverdale have enough in the bank to keep away from the danger zone.

With so many points still available, it is too early to write off Kirkby Lonsdale as no-hopers, but the proverbial minor miracle will be needed to retain first division status.

Kirkby were kept afloat last season by Westgate A, who finished runners-up in the second division and could not step up with their senior side above them, so only one club from the first division was demoted.

The same thing could happen again this year with Westgate A riding high.

Sedgwick, Bolton-le-Sands and Windermere have all purchased prayer mats.

If two were to go down the likeliest candidates are the once all-powerful Windermere club.

They were in fact the last Westmorland club to win the WCL championship in 2006. With the loss of players in recent years they are in a sorry state, but as in life these thing are cyclical.

John Glaister