FIRSTLY, I would like to say congratulations to the winners and commiserations to the losers, of which my club Greenmount is one.

I guess the biggest winners on the final day of competition in the top three tiers of the GMCL was the league itself.

You had Prestwich and Egerton going head-to-head for the Premier title and four teams trying to avoid relegation.

I understand the title decider could have gone either way and what was going on at the bottom?

Fair play to Bury, but we could have done with Edgworth turning up!

Anyway, the upshot is Greenmount will now be wasting a season in Division One.

I say wasting because that's what it feels like - just one more season that we won't be able to challenge for the Premier League title.

How long we stay down there is up to the club. It would be great if we could take a leaf out of the books of Walshaw and Woodbank, who have done fantastic to win a place at the top table.

The big question is how do you tempt the right calibre of players to join us in Division One?

We need another couple of players, that's for sure, and we will almost definitely be changing the professional.

I feel sorry for (our pro) Travis (Townsend). He made a big score in the opening game and played fantastically well at the weekend, but he didn't manage to do it in the games in between.

If he could have shown the form he did against Clifton on Saturday during the rest of the season we would have been challenging for the title.

As it is nobody else, with maybe one or two exceptions, have been up to scratch either.

It just hasn't happened for us.

I don't want that to be the end for me, though. If the club want me then I would like to play another year.

I think that's all I have left in me and could not see myself playing anywhere else.

I was considering retiring before the start of this season, but was convinced to stay for another two years, to take me up to Greenmount's 150th anniversary.

That hasn't changed, and now it feels like I have some unfinished business.

I want to help guide Greenmount back to the Premier League.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone the support my family has been given since the death of my father, Terry.

It happened very quickly and, needless to say, it has been a shocking couple of weeks for me.

But to see the flood of cards, as well as the massive turnout at his funeral, has been humbling.

Dad being dad, he would have wanted me to keep on playing and I carried on turning out for Greenmount.

To be fair, it was very hard to do, my head was somewhere else, but the lads were brilliant and carried me through it.

There is obviously more to life than cricket, but at times like these you also appreciate how big a network of friends and support you get by playing local sport.

Anyway, thanks for reading the column over the season and I hope to be back next year for more fun and games.