IT’S great to see Walney’s Mike Burns being honoured by Somerset.

Mike served the South West county with distinction for many years, helping them lift the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy in 2001 and passing 1,000 runs in both the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

‘Burnsy’ became a firm favourite at Taunton, went on to captain the side, and will join an elite bunch including Sir Viv Richards, Sir Ian Botham, Joel Garner, Justin Langer and Andy Caddick, when he is inducted into the club’s hall of fame next month.

That is a fantastic achievement for any player, and especially one who hails from a town that has not produced many county cricketers.

His successes in the game are all the more impressive considering he had a far from typical route to the professional ranks.

Starting out at Vickerstown, Mike learned his trade at Rainey Park, before moving on to Kendal side Netherfield, where, playing in the Northern League, his talents were exposed to a larger audience.

Mike worked as a fitter at Barrow shipyard and turned out for Cumberland in the Minor Counties, before Warwickshire took a chance on him and he made his First Class debut in 1991 as a 22-year-old.

Although he experienced Warwickshire’s mid-90s glory days alongside Brian Lara and Co, Mike found his chances as a wicket-keeper-batsman limited, and it was only when Dermot Reeve moved from Edgbaston to Taunton as coach in 1997, that his career really took off.

Mike forced his way into the Somerset side as a specialist batsman and went on to play a part in one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.

He was often referred to as a ‘bits and pieces’ player, but another way of looking at it, is that Mike was versatile and could fill pretty much any role on a cricket field.

I remember playing alongside him for North Lancs League under-19s away to Saddleworth in the mid-1980s. Mike took off his wicket-keeping gloves and pads during the opposition innings and produced a quality spell of bowling. If memory serves me right, he was the best bowler, batsman, fielder and stumper on the pitch that day!

Another thing which stood out about Mike was that he played the game with a smile on his face and didn’t take things too seriously.

Judging by what he told the Mail last week about his days at Somerset, this down-to-earth mentality stayed with him throughout his career.

Although proud of his personal achievements with Somerset, Mike was just as quick to mention post-match celebrations with fans and ending up slumped in Taunton kebab shop doorways after nights out with team-mates!

Back in his Vickerstown days, Mike would always give bowlers a sniff of a chance by playing his shots from the off, but if you didn’t get him out early on he could destroy bowling attacks single-handedly.

His aggressive style at the crease would serve him well during a career which saw him amass 7,648 First Class runs at an average of 32.68, with 51 half-centuries and eight tons.

Mike was also capable of compiling big knocks and occupying the crease for long periods – his career-best 221 against Yorkshire in 2001 saw him bat for close to eight hours – but it was as an attacking batsman that he shone.

At his peak he was talked about as a potential England One Day international, and it is intriguing to think how he might have fared in T20 cricket, with the short form of the game still its infancy when Mike retired in 2005.

Another Barrovian export in Liam Livingstone is now excelling in T20 cricket for Lancashire and earned an England call-up this summer, and you get the feeling Mike could also have been a big hit in the 20-overs-a-side format.

Now 48, Mike is still involved in the First Class cricket as a umpire, and he was humbled by the news he was to become a Somerset hall of famer.

“It’s really nice to be part of the history of the club,” was how he described the honour.

As well as being part of Somerset’s history, Mike deserves his own special chapter when the history of Furness sport is written.

His family and friends in Barrow will be very proud of him. He is a credit to the town and to local cricket.

Testing times for North Lancs League


WHEN Mike Burns was playing for Vickerstown in the 1980s, North Lancs League cricket was booming.

The Rainey Park side were one of a number of very good teams battling it out over a 30-match season in a 16-strong top division.

The old second division was also very competitive back then – but sadly those days are long gone.

Although there is still some excellent cricket played in the league and a handful of very strong teams, the decline in the number of people playing the game in recent years has inevitably had a negative knock-on effect. As a result there is not as much competition for places and not as much strength-in-depth as there used to be.

A few clubs have fallen by the wayside, and it is sad to read of A-teams being unable to fulfil fixtures. Last weekend, Cleator and Ulverston seconds conceded their games because they couldn’t raise a team, while the same fate befell Northern League Barrow in their Division Two match at Leyland.

There have been several instances of clubs being unable to put two competitive sides out this summer – and sometimes even fielding one team is a struggle for some.

The problem is not just a local one, with many amateur leagues across the country suffering the same problems.

At least North Lands League chiefs and member clubs are making concerted efforts to inject some much-needed life into a proud competition, with restructuring plans on the table.

Let’s hope they find a solution.

North Lancs League cricket has been played around these parts since the 1890s, and hopefully that will continue to be the case for many years to come.

Hughie can inspire young boxers


BOXING is booming in Britain right now and Barrow is playing its part in the sport’s resurgence.

The town boasts a professional champion in Liam Conroy, while his old Barrow ABC stablemate Ross Cooksey has made a great start to life in the pro ranks with two wins from two bouts.

Conroy and Cooksey will return to their Brook Street roots on Saturday afternoon for a special event when world heavyweight title contender Hughie Fury and his training camp team will be in attendance.

Fury – who has been sparring with Barrow ABC fighters in preparation for next month’s WBO World Heavyweight showdown with Joseph Parker – is taking time out from his training schedule to meet junior and senior members.

It will no doubt be a great experience for the young boxing hopefuls to meet Fury and Co, and hopefully it will inspire the kids to work hard to emulate the likes of Conroy and Cooksey and go a long way in the fight game.