BRIGHOUSE have explained their reasons for forfeiting last Sunday's All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier League Priestley Shield first-round tie at Pudsey St Lawrence.

Having started the match with nine players, six of whom were observing Ramadan, they reached the interval having conceded 545 runs (Jack Allman 258, Harry Cullingford 206 not out) and taken only four wickets.

Visiting skipper Nick Patefield, taking into account the health of his team, then declared their innings after just one ball of the reply.

Brad Patefield, who played in the match for Brighouse, bristled at any thoughts that they had brought the game into disrepute, stating: "Our second team competes in Championship Two Division (they are bottom with only one win, while St Lawrence are mid-table in the Premier Division, which is two divisions higher), and with only nine men to start the first 35 overs, Pudsey decided to bat first regardless of the conditions.

"Six of our players were, as you are aware at this period of the season, participating in Ramadan, which meant they were unable to take on fluids, leading to a severe lack of conditioning throughout the innings.

"Furthermore, as our players continued to battle hard in the field in the face of heavy scoring from the Pudsey batsmen, we felt that a score of 350-400 would have been sufficient as prior knowledge of our recent scores show that a target of that calibre would have been well beyond reach.

"Instead, the Pudsey captain (Jordan Moore) played on and declared with just three balls left in the innings, without a batsman ready to enter the field and complete the innings, which our skipper believed to be a complete lack of respect.

"So considering the lack of respect shown, and that most of our players were withering, we felt it necessary to declare our innings in response to the derogatory treatment experienced at Tofts Road."

Brighouse's secretary and treasurer Pete Bradley said: "We did have 11 players but one was in hospital with dehydration after Saturday's match and the other, who was 15, didn't arrive until it was too late, despite us having made more than one offer to pick him up beforehand.

"His dad then went off to play a match olf his own, and we had to travel across town to Bradford and back to pick the player up, by which time there were only 19 overs to play of their innings.

"Also I don't buy that we have brought the game into disrepute as we won the league's Spirit of Cricket award in 2011."

Saints' cricket chairman Chris Gott said: "If the lads had been out for 120 or 130, we might have declared, but they are young lads and were on the cusp of doing something special, of breaking league records – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – and you don't declare when someone's 195 not out.

"And it wasn't a slogfest - they were playing proper cricket shots - but maybe we should have had someone padded up at the end of the innings."