WINDHILL, one of the most famous clubs in the city, have resigned from The All Rounder Bradford Cricket League on the eve of the new season.

They tendered their resignation to a management board meeting last night at Cleckheaton Sports Club, citing a lack of volunteers, and it was accepted.

Windhill, who have been members since 1905, two years after the league was formed, are best remembered for their record five championship wins from 1937-41 - an achievement that was matched by Pudsey Congs from 2000 to 2004.

They were also the club that brought the great Sir Learie Constantine and Manny Martindale to the Bradford League.

Other notables were Charlie Parker, Bert Vogler, Johnny Lawrence, Alf Pope, Bill Copson, Syd Buller, Les Ames, Ellis Achong, George Dawkes, James Langridge, Arnold Hamer, Dennis Bateson, Tony Clarkson and John 'The Dentist' Maynard. 

Latterly, those in action at Busy Lane have included Amol Muzumder, Darren Blenkiron, Lou Vincent and Bradford-raised Ajmal Shahzad, one of the first  players with an ethnic background to play for Yorkshire.   

Windhill confirmed their decision to withdraw from the league after 111 years in a letter to the management board yesterday.

The club cited a lack of volunteers. With the start of the season approaching, they had no scorers, match-day helpers and ground personnel, as well as a limited-playing squad.

League chairman David Young said: "This is extremely sad news and it is with deep regret that we have accepted Windhill's resignation.

"As a management board we have offered help to Windhill and we will continue to support their efforts to ensure cricket is played at Busy Lane.

"It is our hope that Windhill will one day be in a position to return to the Bradford League.

"Nobody likes to see the demise of a cricket club and we will do all we can to encourage former players, officials or supporters of the club to come forward and offer assistance to try an ensure that the name of Windhill doesn't disappear from the cricketing landscape."

The board placed on record their thanks to Ian Holdsworth for his outstanding efforts on behalf of his club over the last few years.

Windhill's departure from Championship A means that there will only be 11 teams in the division.

This will result in one team having no fixture every week. It was considered too late to attempt to promote a side from the Conference and rearrange the fixtures.

The management board will be offering the spare club each week in Championship A the opportunity to play a friendly against the spare team in the Conference.

* The All Rounder Bradford League's management board last night decided to call off Saturday's opening round of league fixtures following the excessive wet weather.

All of the fixtures in the Premier Division and Second Teams Premier Division will be played on Saturday, September 10 with a noon start.

The exception will be the second-team game between Yeadon and East Bierley, which will be played on Sunday, September 11 at noon.

The Championship A, Championship B, Conference and the respective second-team divisions will now be played on Saturday, September 17.

In making their decision, the management board took into consideration the large number of responses from clubs reporting that their outfields were unfit and they were unable to get machinery onto the ground.

Chairman David Young said: "The opinions of the clubs were overwhelming. The wet weather has been unprecedented and we appreciate that all clubs have been working hard in an incredibly difficult situation.

"In re-arranging the games, we have observed the wishes of clubs who have indicated that they do not wish to play league matches on a Sunday and therefore have set dates in September when the weather is usually more favourable."

In light of Saturday's postponements, the Second Teams' Championship A game between Idle and Keighley, which had been re-arranged for June 5, will also be played on September 17.