The Craven League are giving their clubs until July 1 to comply with the England and Wales Cricket Board's Safe Hands Policy.

All clubs should have been compliant by April 1, but league secretary Ann Coe has had so many problems trying to bring them into line that the league's May committee meeting agreed on the three months' grace.

Coe even threatened to resign from her position as the league's Child Welfare Officer, such were the mixed messages coming from the Yorkshire Cricket Association/Yorkshire Cricket Board over whether umpires needed to have Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.

She told the league's member clubs at their monthly meeting at Skipton LMS Club: "There are only seven clubs that are compliant with the policy, although most of you believe that you are.

"Six clubs have not even replied to letters that have been sent to them and as for having child welfare

officers (CWO) in place, one club has not even sent their CWO on a course, three haven't sent off their CRB forms and seven haven't received the forms back - that is a third of the 31 clubs in the league.

"Also six clubs are without a second-team umpire and seven are without a reserve CRB-checked umpire.

"Five clubs have had both their captains CRB checked, one club has had their first-team captain CRB checked and three clubs have had their second-team captains CRB checked.

"As for self-declaration forms, seven clubs said they would self-declare all their players, two are in the process of doing that, one club is going to encourage it but not make it a rule, another club is going to

consider it, yet another club would only self-declare committee members, and another club would only do so for junior helpers. A further six clubs don't use them and three clubs didn't answer."

Coe added: "As for umpires and scorers, one club would sit their scorers outside their scorebox and let them use the junior scoreboard, another club would nominate a player who is CRB checked, two clubs would abandon their matches, another two hadn't even thought about the issue, four clubs are sure it won't happen as they have plenty of people who are CRB checked, and seven clubs will self-declare somebody.

"A further six clubs didn't want to comment, another will carry on regardless and another will pray, and if that fails just hope for the best!"

Haworth Road's representative Les Gudgeon said: "I know this is all incredibly frustrating (CRB checks etc), but we have no choice - we must back Ann up. I would suggest that clubs have until July 1 to comply."

That proposal was agreed by the meeting, and Coe added: "What I would like to see is CWOs being CRB checked and going on the Safe Hands course.

"Umpires and scorers over 18 should also be CRB checked and there should be self-declaration forms for the players. And for clubs that don't comply there should be a graduated scale of punishments at the league's discretion."