GREAT Horton Church and TABS have both resigned from the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League.

The resignations of both clubs were announced at the league’s annual meeting at the Karmand Centre.

Great Horton Church secretary Taj Butt explained the situation, saying: “It is something that we have been thinking about for the last few years.

“We have needed to decide as a club what our priorities were as we have the biggest junior section in the Bradford district, including a girls’ section (the club’s juniors won 10 competitions in 2024, with the girls picking up two of them).

“We have spent a lot of money and resources on our senior cricket and we want to make sure at the same time that the young players that we bring through have a pathway to senior cricket.

“We have formed partnerships in the last couple of years with a couple of really good clubs - Jer Lane in the Bradford Premier League and Bowling Baptists, who are doing very well in the Craven League.

“Last year about eight or nine of our players played for Baptists’ second team and did really well, and a few played for their first team, so that is why we have decided to put all of our resources into junior cricket.”

Butt added: “With all due respect to the Mutual League we didn’t feel that it was right for our juniors to play in the Mutual League.

“Some of that was due to the facilities in that league and it was also due to the standards, and we feel that the best way forward for our juniors was for them to play in the Bradford Premier League and the Craven League.

“We thought about changing leagues for our senior teams, but it takes a lot of individuals working in the background to play senior cricket and we didn’t really get that help, and that seems to be the trend these days that players just turn up, play their cricket and then go home.

“And also there are increasing costs involved in maintaining a cricket ground on a Saturday and Sunday, and our junior teams were actually subsidising the senior teams, and we felt that that wasn’t right.

“A few years ago we folded our second team and now we have folded our first team but we will to maintain our senior team on Sundays in the Quaid-e-Azam League.”

Butt went on: “There is a massive shortage of grounds in the Bradford district and there are a lot of teams looking for grounds.

“We have received a lot of phone calls from clubs when they found out that our ground might be available on Saturdays, and Bradford Indians in the Mutual League and One Stop in the Dales Council League will be using our ground on Saturdays.”

The demise of TABS is believed to be down to a lack of players.

Great Horton Church were members of the Mutual Sunday School League from 1947-96 and rejoined in 2011, winning the Sir James Roberts Cup in 1991, 2012 and 2024, with their B team lifting the H Broadbent Trophy in 1991 and 2022 and winning Group B in 2016.

Last season their first XI were third in Group A and quarter-finalists in the Rizues T20 Cup - a position they also reached in 2023.

TABS, who played at King George V Playing Fields on Canal Road, opposite ACW Garden Centre, have been members since 2014, winning Group D in their first season and the H Broadbent Trophy in 2019.

In 2024, TABS were 11th out of 14 in Group B, having finished third the previous season, when they also reached the semi-finals of the H Broadbent Trophy.

However, one new club were provisionally accepted into the Mutual League - Twins & Co.

The Keighley-based club, who already play in the Quaid-e-Azam League on Sundays, will still, however, need to find a ground and also satisfy the Mutual Sunday School League’s executive committee about their infrastructure, including having a safeguarding officer.

A decision on Twins & Co is expected to be announced at the league’s January meeting.