TWO Bolton League clubs’ Lancashire Knockout participation has been ended prematurely, with Horwich and Farnworth expelled from this year’s competition.

And the two Premiership Division sides are fuming at their ejections for fielding ineligible players under the LKO qualification rules.

Farnworth have fallen foul of the Lancashire Cricket Board due to the participation of Leighton Friend while Horwich’s disqualification comes from Zach Hollis playing in the first round.

Their disqualifications mean the sides they beat in round one, Ribblesdale League side Salesbury and Todmorden of the Lancashire League, have been reinstated at their expense.

And both clubs have been left fuming at the ‘red tape’ approach of the board.

In Horwich’s case they feel special dispensation should be made for a player who has just turned 16 and is devastated to have been the reason his side have been kicked out of the LKO.

Farnworth, meanwhile, admit their player has been out of the UK for too long to qualify, though not even by a week.

“It’s frustrating for us, and it’s ridiculous, really,” said the Lavender Road club’s captain, Simon Booth. “The issue is the red tape, regardless of who you are or what you do, there are so many clauses and sub-clauses we investigated when we were first told there was an issue and, to be honest, we’re still no wiser.

“I’ll have to go through every players’ holidays over the last couple of years before we can pick a team to play in the LKO again.

“To qualify under category 3e a player must, in an 18-month period prior to March 31 in the qualifying year, spent no longer than 35 days out of the UK or a total of 70 days away. Leighton has spent 76 days away, 16 of which were for his wedding.

“He has held a British passport since he was six, that’s 20 years ago – I haven’t had a British passport that long.

“There’s no point in us appealing, it’s in black and white. I could have tried lying to the board when we were at the meeting at Old Trafford but I knew they knew, another club had told them what we had done.

“There was no attempt on our part to be underhand, it’s just an honest mistake.”

Over at the Recreation Ground, Horwich members say the LCB have acted immorally and should show more consideration for a youngster who also holds a British passport and whose entire family lives in the area.

“Zach, who turned 16 in May, came over in January to live here, he’s here to stay because he wants to progress his career in Horwich and in the Bolton League,” said team manager David White.

“We just thought ‘he’s got a British passport, he’s a British lad’.

“His mum is from Horwich, he goes to Myerscough College, where our captain, Brett Pelser, is a tutor and he gets funding as a British citizen.

“I don’t know how the LCB got wind of it, but it is an honest mistake, and one that has left Zach devastated.

“It’s a ridiculous situation and our intention is to appeal to the committee. There should be special dispensation because it’s not fair to a junior cricketer. He’s a 16-year-old boy, he was 15 when the so-called offence took place.

“We have nothing to hide, we’re just trying to help a 16-year-old develop his career, that’s what he’s doing. Zach is working with coaches he trusts and friends he has made since his family came back to Horwich. It’s his career and his life that has been affected by this decision, we feel it’s ethically and morally wrong.”

Representatives from both clubs attended a meeting at Lancashire’s headquarters where they learned their fate. After making their case, the club members were asked to step outside and when they came back in, were told they would be eliminated from this year’s competition.

“Paul Allott (former Lancashire and England bowler) was there and talked at length about how important junior participation and grassroots cricket is,” added Booth. “And then they make this decision about us and a young lad at Horwich, which makes it all the more frustrating.

“We won’t appeal even though we, as a club, love the LKO.

“It’s a competition we take very seriously and won in 2012 and being thrown out on a technicality is difficult to take but everything happens for a reason and we’ll be even more focused on the league and the Twenty20 cup.

“We’ll put everything into Bradshaw this weekend, it should be a good game between two good teams that are up there, it’s a bit of a 12-pointer, really.

“We got murdered by Kearsley last week so we’ve got to come back from that. They knocked us off our perch so we’ll look to get back on it straight away.”