A YOUNG boy, no more than eight years old, stood in a field, the cricketing whites he had borrowed were trailing on the floor, getting muddy and grass-stained.

Jonathan Clare had been drafted in at the last minute by his father, John, to sub field for the Burnley Grammar School Old Boys team.

After his initial insecurities about what he was supposed to do wore off, the game made a big impression on him. Likewise, Clare impressed his team-mates so much with his enthusiasm for Cricket they awarded him a trophy at the end of the season for being their youngest ever player.

Nine or so years later, that same youngster has re-written Burnley Cricket Club's history books and was two runs short of breaking a Lancashire League record set by Todmorden's Michael Hartley in 1976, following his stunning 9-15 haul against Church on Saturday.

"When I first started playing, I didn't have a clue what to do," the 16-year-old said.

"I'd just been given some mens' whites that were far too big for me and I just stood there.

"But I got a card at the end of the season and a little trophy for being their youngest player."

About as soon as he could walk, Clare was interested in sport and soon developed a natural aptitude for most games as well. But like his friend and former team-mate, Lancashire and England pace ace James 'Jimmy' Anderson, his first love has always been cricket.

"I enjoyed my first taste of cricket so much that I got involved with the Belvedere team," said the Burnley-born teenager.

"Then when I was about 11 I went to Burnley Cricket Club because there were more opportunities there.

"I used to bat with James in pairs cricket and we played in the same junior teams.

"His dad, Mick, was manager of the Under 13s and Under 15s. And we went to the same school, so I've known James a long time.

"It's fantastic what's happened to him in such a short space of time."

Their cricketing skills are frighteningly similar and advanced for their years.

Both are fast bowlers, although Clare has become an all-rounder on account of him being more adept with the bat than his counterpart, who sent Clare a text message congratulating him on his remarkable bowling feat on Saturday.

Both are responsible for putting Burnley CC on the map in recent months, and both have a penchant for the same hairstyles.

Yet, while flattered, the St Theodore's and former St Mary's Primary School pupil isn't altogether comfortable with being referred to as the new James Anderson.

"It's a great compliment. But if I had a pound for every time someone has said that to me I'd be a millionaire," Clare explains.

Instead, he's hoping to make a name for himself in his own right. And it's hard to imagine that he won't succeed in his latest aim.

Always at least one step ahead of his age group, he broke into Lancashire Under 11s set-up when he was just nine years old, following an initial trial at Enfield CC, and was soon asked to open the bowling.

Two years later, and technically two years early, he progressed to the U13s, and a similar pattern unfolded at U15 and U17 level, captaining the U11s and U15s along the way. In the meantime, he earned a North of England U13s cap before breaking into Burnley's first team towards the end of the 2001 season.

Now, after adapting his bowling action to take the strain off his back, he has been given the arduous, and arguably enviable, task of opening the bowling and batting at Turf Moor. But it's a challenge that he has been ready, willing, not to mention hugely able to accept.

In fact, his ability to dismiss Lancashire League professionals has become his trademark. And perhaps his most satisfying victim was Church professional Greg Mail. The Australian has had a number of prolific innings so far this season, but he was undone by the Burnley teenager after scoring a solitary run last weekend - the first of the nine wickets Clare was set to skittle.

Clare's other high profile victims include Enfield's paid man Martin Van Jaarsveld and Lowerhouse pro Ryan Harris, despite his path towards local cricket glory being hindered in his first two years at secondary school.

"Because the Burnley schools finish for summer earlier than everyone else, we used to get to quarter finals of competitions and then have to drop out because of the holidays," explained Clare, who has been selected as Lancashire Seconds' 12th man for their match in Crosby this week after completing his AS level exams in psychology, sports studies and English language and literature.

If he makes the grade in his A-level exams next summer, he will go to university. He has yet to decide which one, but getting a university education is something which is encouraged at Old Trafford, particularly by Lancashire's cricket manager Mike Watkinson.

Yet, he confesses, he would sacrifice it all for a longed-after career in cricket.