BURY Cricket Club tonight resigned from the Bolton Association and will join the Greater Manchester League next season.

The Radcliffe Road club became the fifth to leave the Association, quickly following Edgworth who resigned this morning.

Bury are the fourth of those five to apply to join the GMCL with Edgworth set to wait a few weeks before making an announcement on where they will be playing next season.

Bury said they had informed the BDCA of their decision to resign from the league. Having confirmed receipt of their resignation from the BDCA today they could confirm they would be applying for membership of the Greater Manchester Cricket League.

In their resignation letter issued tonight, Bury, who are in their third season in the Association since joining from the now-defunct Manchester Association, said: "Our move to the BDCA came at an important time in the club's history.

"As a club we have developed in the short time we have been in the BDCA and will be forever grateful for the welcome and hospitality shown by both the clubs and executive.

"We take enormous pride in contributing to the great history of the BDCA and only wish that some compromise could have been found that enabled all the leagues to work together.

"It is our firmly held belief that the myriad challenges facing recreational cricket are best met within a pyramid league structure operating on a cooperative basis hence we will be formally submitting an application to join the Greater Manchester Cricket League."