Thatto Heath Crusaders A have today notified the NWC that we will be withdrawing to Division 4. We have sent the following E-mail to Ron Girvin to notify him.
We cannot see any real prospect of raising a 3rd team any time in the near future and feel that it would be in the best interests of all concerned if we were to withdraw from NWC Div 4 with immediate effect. Obviously it is deeply regretable having pushed so hard to be included in the division that it has come to this but I don't think it is fair to waste the time of the other clubs in the division by living in hope that we may be able to field a team anytime soon.
If we were to continue giving up games on a weekly basis I feel that it would devalue the competition and be disrespectful to the other clubs in the division, thus harming the reputation of our club in the process. I can only apologise on behalf of the Open Age set up at Thatto Heath Crusaders to the NWC League and the other member clubs in Division 4, at the time of entering we felt we were in a strong position to proceed with an extra team, however the club has been let down by the by the commitment of some players that indicated their willingness to turn out in the beginning. Hopefully a 3rd team maybe something we can revisit with more success in the near future.
Just to clear a few things up about the way we entered the league late. Our request was initially turned down by the League and it was only after a lot of pleading e-mails from our club that we were allowed to enter Division 4 with the withdrawal of a couple of teams freeing up space. Ideally we would have liked to have begun in Division 6 as this would have suited the standard of our players much better. Unfortunately this wasn't possible due to the already large numbers in that division.
Apologies once again to all of the clubs and players in NWC Division 4.
Andy Houghton
Open Age Team Manager
Thatto Heath Crusaders