A LACK of players has forced Bridport to withdraw their first XI from the Dorset League after just three games of the new season.

The club held an emergency meeting on Tuesday night where it was decided to pull out of County Division Four.

Bridport forfeited last Saturday’s fixture against Swanage Seconds after having only five men available for the trip to Days Park.

Chairman Peter Wyrill revealed the club would look to arrange friendly matches during the rest of the summer but couldn’t say for definite if a team would be re-entered in the Dorset League next year.

“It is effectively down to a lack of players and being unable to fulfil fixtures,” he said.

“It’s unfair to keep going as the club would get fined every time we couldn’t field a side, and we would prevent other clubs from playing cricket if we kept cancelling at the last minute.

“Things have really gone downhill in the last two years in terms of players’ commitment for the whole day on a Saturday.

“Unless you’ve got a core group of 12-15 players you are going to struggle, and it’s all about having a nucleus of players who want to play for each other.”

He added: “We’d hope to get something up and running again but whether that will be for next season I don’t know, we could have two fallow seasons.”