THE arrival of Clitheroe professional Mark Gillespie has set the wheels in motion for the club's title challenge, writes Suzanne Geldard.

The New Zealander has breathed new life into his side's quest to reap bonus points and keep them challenging for honours this season.

Gillespie arrived in the Ribble Valley three weeks ago and, since then, Clitheroe's record has been won three, lost one.

Last weekend they earned maximum points at home to Barnoldswick to leave them just two points adrift of leaders Read, who they face in two weeks.

And Bolton praised the professional's part in their recent successes.

"He has helped in the dressing room and introduced a lot of things into training as well," he said.

"He bowls quite quickly and, if wickets are firm, he has come back later on in the opposition's innings to dismiss batsmen at nine, 10 and 11.

"That's something we weren't able to do last year and the reason why we didn't pick up so many bonus points.

"We had a spinning professional last season and our amateur opening bowlers weren't brilliant so we were always chasing the game.

"Now we can open the bowling quickly, bring spinners on halfway through and throw the fast bowlers on at the end to claim the final wickets."

That's a policy Bolton is hoping will mean his side pick up another seven points at Edenfield tomorrow, and keep them in with a chance of knocking Read off the top spot.

But he knows they will have their work cut out against the Rossendale-based side, whose professional Ian Mitchell poses a threat, as well as experienced amateur Brett Storey.

But Bolton will simply be concentrating on his own side as they look to end the weekend in pole position in the Ribblesdale League.

"We've done really well so far and have got the most bonus points in the league as far as I know. So we're bowling well, we just need to improve a bit on the batting side," added Bolton, who scored an unbeaten 75 against Barnoldswick last week.

"We had a decent wicket last week and I'm in a bit of form so, touch wood, that will carry on.

"But I don't really like to talk about it because I'll probably tempt fate and get three ducks on the trot."

He added: "We were disappointed with the two games we've lost. We were stuffed by Ribblesdale in the local derby and it was a disappointing result against Baxenden. They did well but I thought we should have done a lot better.

"It's just unfortunate that our off days always seem to happen in the the derbies.

"Overall, though, we can't complain about being in second place.

"Although it would be hard to guage how well we are actually doing because we've had three key games washed out against Cherry Tree, Settle and Earby.

"They would have been good tests for us but we will be able to assess ourselves better in the return matches."