ALLERTON, who resigned from the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League in mid-December, initially due to problems over their lease with Bradford Council, have been accepted back into the league at an extraordinary general meeting at Clayton ARLFC.

Mutual league chairman Nick Spachis said: "Allerton got in touch with us about two weeks after our annual meeting at the back end of November to say that they were resigning, but then contacted us about three weeks later to say that they wanted to rejoin.

"Initially there seemed to be a problem with the ground lease from Bradford Council, but that seems to be being sorted, and latterly the issue has been a lack of players."

Two votes took place at the egm – one to decide whether Allerton should be accepted back in and one to decide which divisions their first and second teams should play in.

Allerton were accepted back in by a unanimous 19-0, but then Allerton representative Wahid Butt explained that their expected playing strength would mean that they didn't want to come back into Group A and Group B as the 2017 tables indicate.

Their preferred option was to play in Group B and Group C, so a vote took place and Allerton's wish to play in the second and third tier was granted by 20-2.

The egm then had to decide who should be promoted in their place, and both Cambing A and B were handed rises.

Spachis said: "We felt that whether Allerton come back in or not was too important an issue for the league executive committee to decide and that it should be an issue for clubs, hence the egm."

Butt, who is stepping back from his commitments at Allerton and has resigned as a representative for his division, explained: "We have been at loggerheads with Bradford Council for quite some time and we were very reluctant to resign, but we did it in good faith.

"Having been accepted back in, we didn't feel that we had the playing capacity to play in Group A and B."

Now the lease issue seems on the way to being sorted, the problem then was a lack of players to run two sides at Allerton.

However, Salem Athletic have stepped in to help, and their secretary Hafeez Rehman explained: "Allerton were going to fold, and I was upset about that and the management at Salem were upset about it as Allerton are a club with a lot of history behind them.

"We just wanted to know if we could help out, and we have a good management structure in place and a good junior set up.

"We have over 60 players, which is too many really for two sides, and we are helping Allerton out, who now have about 30 and are planning further recruitment.

"We have also given them a groundsman and two people to help run the teams.

"The new executive at Allerton will hopefully be sorting out the lease with Bradford Council, and we also want to establish girls' and women's cricket there involving teenagers and open-age players."