CAUGHT Jones, bowled Snellgrove.

For three of the 13 seasons which the current Colwyn Bay captain and wicketkeeper spent at Firwood Bootle, those words were a regular entry in the scorebook, a line uttered by the Wadham Road faithful on any summer Sunday when a big knock-out match was being played in Liverpool 20.

Graeme Jones will never forget those glorious trophy-littered years, but tomorrow he must plot the downfall of his old team and aim to outwit his former collaborator in deception.

For Jones and David Snellgrove will shake hands as both friends and opposing captains when the current Premier League leaders arrive at Penrhyn Avenue. Both men are in their first season in charge of their respective sides, and those teams occupy the top two places in the current table. There is not much doubt about the game of the day in the Business Assistance Liverpool Competition.

“We’re going to take them on,” said Jones, although he was anxious not to be seen as the man with the inside track on how to defeat his former club. “In an ideal world, we’d like to post 200-plus and ask them to chase it.

“The fact that their top four is so strong means that there will be people further down the order who haven’t batted that much this season, and we’d like to get amongst them if possible.

“Chasing is always difficult in the Liverpool Competition, and when you’re up against Bootle’s wealth of bowling, it’s even harder.”

Jones at least has the comfort that his team is in form going into tomorrow’s clash. Three successive wins, and seven victories in 10 league outings this season, have enabled Colwyn Bay to pull 21 points clear of third-placed New Brighton, although the Welsh side still trail Snellgrove’s pace-setters by 25 points.

“Is anybody else really in contention with Firwood Bootle at the moment?” he asked. “I wouldn’t say we’re better than New Brighton or Ormskirk but we’re winning games and we’re more than happy. The winning’s bred confidence.

“At some point, the law of averages indicates that Bootle will fail to win a couple and we have to be ready to take that chance and put the pressure on. We had such an opportunity when we bowled Hightown out for 118, but we got rolled over for 67.”

Despite such galling setbacks, Jones is enjoying his first season in charge of a Liverpool Competition club, a fact which, in itself, he finds surprising.

“I was concerned that it would have a detrimental effect on my wicketkeeping,” he admitted. “But I’m finding that I can compartmentalise my roles perfectly well. I focus on the keeping when the bowler starts his run-up.”

And what of his role as a makeshift opening batsman, a position which suggests that Jones’ contribution should be compared with that of the versatile Alec Stewart?

“That’s a job I’d rather not be focusing on,” he said firmly. “It so happens that we’re an opening batsman light and so my moving up the order has been prompted by need rather than desire. I’d much prefer to be down at number seven or so.”

But if Colwyn Bay are an opener short, there are few weaknesses in the rest of the current line-up. Jones reckons that every member of his team has made a vital contribution to a victory this year and he reels off their assets with obvious pride.

Sion Morris, he sees, as “an ideal number three” while spinner Paul Jenkins is performing “as well as ever – he bowls as straight as any left-armer I’ve come across.”

The captain also has special praise for Colwyn Bay’s Australian import Nathan Rimmington. “I couldn’t ask for any more from the first professional I’ve captained,” he said. “He’s good with the youngsters and the highest compliment I can pay him is that he brings Adam Warren to mind.”

FIXTURES: TOMORROW: Business Assistance Liverpool Competition: ECB Premier League: Colwyn Bay v Firwood Bootle, Fleetwood Hesketh v Wallasey, Hightown v Prestatyn, Lytham v Southport and Birkdale, New Brighton v Northop Hall, Newton-le-Willows v Northern, Ormskirk v Formby. First Division: Ainsdale v Rainford, Burscough v Rainhill, Leigh v Liverpool, Orrell Red Triangle v St Helens Recs, St Helens v Skelmersdale, Sefton Park v Highfield, Wigan v Maghull