Loose Cricket Club in Maidstone fold in centenary season

Loose Cricket Club have folded in their centenary year due to a lack of players.

The club, formed in 1922, have resigned from the Kent Village League after struggling for numbers in recent seasons.

Cyril Davey had warned of the decline when he resigned as chairman in 2016, stressing the need to attract young players if the club were to avoid going to the wall.

After leaving their home ground, at Old Drive, in the early 2000s - the lack of a pavilion causing them to lose Clubmark status - Loose saw their pool of juniors join other clubs.

They had been only the second club in Maidstone to earn Clubmark status, three years earlier.

They went on to play home games at Maidstone Grammar School and the Tower Ground in Leeds before they saw out their final years sharing with Rumwood CC.

Davey, who joined Loose in 1973, spent more than 30 years as chairman, and also had a spell as president.

At 82 he still plays and is hoping to find a new club, but it won’t be the same.

“I wrote to the members in 2016 when I finished as chairman and said the club would fall apart if it didn’t get youngsters involved,” said Davey, who was made a life member of Loose.

“To say I’m disappointed at what’s happened is an understatement - and in our centenary year.

“I’ve been there 49 years, the same year we joined the Kent Village League - it’s such a shame to see it end like this.

“For a club to survive, you’ve got to get youngsters involved and run a junior section.

“You rely on them coming through. If you don’t have youngsters, you’ve had it.

“We used to have 54 youngsters and then when we had to leave Old Drive - the Kent Cricket Board wouldn’t renew our Clubmark status without a pavilion - we lost them to other clubs.

"Some went to Bearsted and