EARBY Cricket Club suffered a seismic shock last week at the annual meeting when club stalwart and secretary Keith Crabtree confirmed his decision to leave the club after 50 years of dedicated service.

The 63-year-old started as the club scorer as a 12-year-old and other than for a couple of seasons spent playing at Gargrave, he has been a life-long worker at The Applegarth.

Mr Crabtree's expertise in the scoring department earned him the 'Scorer of the Year' award nine times between 1984 and 1994, his near monopoly of the accolade culminating in the trophy being named after him from 1996 onwards.

In addition to his longevity as a player, he was also Chairman of the Selection committee and secretary for the last two seasons.

The sting in the tail of this milestone in the annals of the club is that Mr Crabtree has decided to accept an offer to become scorer with league champions Read.

"I'm keeping my reasons for moving on to myself," says Mr Crabtree. "I think it was time for a change. I finally made my decision at the league dinner and once I had made my mind up, that was it."

Despite one celebrated dressing room bust-up mid-season, Mr Crabtree insists that he leaves the club without any rancour so far as the players are concerned and while the move to Read is sure to have raised an eyebrow or two, he leaves with richly-deserved praise ringing in his ears.

"We're very sorry to see him go," says club president Donald Speak. "He's been a true, loyal and very generous servant to the club, putting in all those hours of work free of charge, and he'll be sadly missed.

"I certainly hope he does come back to Earby in the future, because that's where he belongs."

Retiring captain Ian Clarkson echoes the sentiments: "Keith has been a tremendous servant for the Earby club over many years as committeeman and chairman of selectors and he will be greatly missed."

On the playing front, Clarkson has decided not to offer himself for re-election as captain on health grounds.

"I'm not sure at this stage whether I'll play next season and didn't want to let the club down," he says. "It may be that I'll get itchy feet once the season arrives, but at this stage it's best to wait and see how things work out."

Earby have a committee meeting on Monday to discuss the captaincy issue.