SALTAIRE Cricket Club chairman Simon Hicks has refuted allegations of "concealment", "manipulation" and "a cloak-and-dagger operation" regarding the club's move from the All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier League to the Aire-Wharfe League.

Although the vote to switch leagues for the 2017 season gained the necessary two-thirds majority at a club extraordinary general meeting, it has left a bitter taste in the mouth of some long-standing members.

Life member Reg Nelson, who is a former long-time committee member at Roberts Park, called the decision to move leagues a "tragedy for Saltaire CC".

He says: "The club is made for Bradford League cricket and should relish the new challenge of the extended league.

"It's a betrayal to everybody down the generations who has made this a great club, from Sydney Barnes and Jim Laker to Jeff Driver, who has given the club 55 years' service."

Nelson, Pat McKelvey, Julien Young and Driver, the latter three having given the club something like 150 years' service in total, were among those embittered by the vote to leave.

Driver, who resigned as club president and a trustee in the wake of the vote, stated: "Simon Hicks instigated the move at a committee meeting on May 23, when the president and trustee of the club was away on holiday, and never consulted the remaining trustees or life members of the club."

Other bones of contention from those who wanted the club to stay in the Bradford League were the use of proxy votes for players, the loss of long-standing club members because of the vote to exit, and leaving the Bradford League when they had contributed to the club's flood appeal and also before the revamped Bradford League had had the chance to settle down.

Another criticism was that Saltaire hadn't the stomach for the fight now that the Bradford League has been strengthened by them joining with the Central Yorkshire League.

Hicks, who says that the move was made to safeguard the club's future, explained: "This was an important decision for the club that inevitably would cause some level of disagreement.

"The committee of Saltaire Cricket Club was scrupulous in following procedure, whereby we sought permission, in the first instance, from the Bradford Premier League management board to speak to officials from the Aire(dale) and Wharfedale Senior Cricket League.

"We would have been foolish in the extreme to have side-stepped protocol.

"We went to substantial lengths to ensure that both sides in the debate were happy with each aspect of the voting procedure, such as the use of proxy votes.

"A two-thirds majority voting to leave provided an unambiguous mandate in support of the decision to move to a new league."

As to why the club had decided to leave the Bradford Premier League now, Hicks added: "The decision was taken with a view to safeguarding the future of cricket in Roberts Park.

"All cricket clubs face huge challenges over the next few years, both financial and from the point of view of falling levels of participation.

"We have never had a major benefactor and have relied on old-fashioned graft to keep us going.

"We cannot, and never have been able to, compete with the eye-watering levels of spending from a number of clubs within the old Bradford League and the newly enlarged league.

"We have chosen to pursue a different future but this does not diminish our history. Only time will tell whether it is the correct decision."

Driver said: "Having only recently voted on behalf of the club to support the current restructuring of the Bradford League and then remaining silent on the issue at the club's annual meeting in March, this showed disregard for the president, trustees and life members of the club.

"To prompt such a move before a newly-formed committee therefore contained an element of concealment and manipulation in order to hijack the club and revealed a degree of contempt for those who have and still actively support the club in so many ways.

"After 55 years' service to the club, as a result of this decision I have resigned as president and trustee of Saltaire CC."

As for the president's decision to step away, Hicks wrote: "Jeff Driver had already written to the committee on April 4 stating that he had decided to stand aside from the operational set-up of the cricket club.

"He also said that he would continue as president for the foreseeable future until such time as a suitable replacement could be found.

"Following the vote to leave the Bradford Premier League, he announced his decision to stand down as president with immediate effect, which was hardly surprising."

As for Saltaire making crucial decisions when Driver was out of the country, Hicks said: "Jeff Driver was away for a holiday lasting three to four weeks when the committee decision was taken but I discussed the issue with him at the Idle first-team fixture on May 14."

As for the use of proxy votes, Hicks added: "It was Jeff Driver who insisted on having proxy votes. It was even agreed to give a proxy vote to the widow of a former member and to the wife of a member who was not in a position to vote because of serious ill health."

As for the thought that Saltaire did not have the stomach for the fight in a stronger Bradford Premier League, Hicks insisted: "Anybody with any knowledge of Saltaire CC will know that we have never shied away from a challenge.

"We played ten of the last 13 years in Division One of the old Bradford League and very few understand the huge lengths that we went to, and still do, to keep cricket going in Roberts Park.

"A few detractors seem to think that they have a God-given right to pontificate on all things to do with Saltaire CC when their practical input in terms of fund-raising, junior coaching and helping to maintain the ground has sometimes been negligible."

Nelson concluded: "Hopefully in the next decade there will be a new breed of people populating Saltaire's committee who have the foresight to reapply for Bradford League membership."