THE media coverage of the dispute between Lymington Town Council and Lymington cricket Club has made me very angry.

I am not connected with Lymington Cricket Club in any way apart from having played there against Lymington and umpired occasionally for the past 48 years.

How could the council contemplate moving the club from the sports ground after many years in which thousands of locals have enjoyed playing cricket there?

Lymington must run many teams from ages under-9s to adults. They run at least six adult teams at weekends and goodness knows how many youth teams weekly. This must occupy a minimum of 132 local people weekly in the summer months only.

As an ex-policeman I know that team sport actually helps to keep youngsters fit and healthy and contributes to the all round welfare of young people.

As the Lymington Tennis Club is involved in this dispute, I wonder how many are involved on the courts at weekends. The most a tennis court can occupy is four for each court and when I have been there there appears to be four to eight people playing tennis, while up to 30 are involved in cricket matches.

Lymington CC Ist XI plays in the Southern Premier League which is the highest league in Hampshire, Dorset and Isle of Wight so they play at a very good standard.

To move the club elsewhere and prepare the wickets to compare with their present ground and make the extensive alterations to bring the new ground up to the standard required for their present status would cost a fortune.

Ventnor have recently had to do this and it cost millions and took four years. If this happened to Lymington the young players would go elsewhere, say Bashley, Bournemouth, or New Milton and Lymington would no longer be one of Hampshire’s leading clubs.

The health and safety concerns the council keeps stating are an excuse. There must be hundreds of clubs in the Hampshire area alone that have safety issues.

Are we saying due to health and safety cricket should not be played on these grounds.

As for the £50,000 needed to put nets up to protect tennis players, why should the cricket club bear that expense, when they have played there for over 150 years without the need for netting.

It makes me think there are other reasons for the council wanting cricket to cease. It may be commercial, it maybe complaints from a minority sport such as tennis, I do not know, but to blame it on health and safety concerns appears to be a smokescreen.

I hope this does not go ahead as it could be a death knell for local cricket as other councils may follow suit. It could be the end to the Lymington Cricket Club.

So come on Lymington Council please do not spoil the enjoyment for many of your residents.

DENIS EMERY, Romsey.