SQUASH players near Selby are fighting to save their club after plans were unveiled to build houses on the site.

The 200 members at South Milford have started a petition and plan to lobby Selby MP John Grogan to help them keep the 25-year-old club open.

A planning application to build houses on the site has been submitted to Selby District Council after members' attempts to buy the club themselves failed.

Club owner Dorina Taylor said today that she had no choice but to sell the site after suffering crippling losses.

She said: "I would love to keep the club going. It's been my life, but it's been making massive losses and I can't go on like this.

"I've tried everything possible to turn the club around but there's nothing more I can do. I've even had to borrow money from friends and relatives and I'm still overdrawn.

"I work 15 hours a day, seven days a week, and I'm worn out. I don't think there's a businessman on earth who would take this on and I would be doing the members a big injustice if I let them buy it."

The club has ten teams in the York and District squash leagues and its 200 members include 50 juniors. It also has a ladies' team and a men's team in the Yorkshire League.

Club captain Graham Trembath, of Leeds Road, Selby, said it would be a crying shame if the club folded.

He said: "The members put an offer in to buy the club, but it was turned down because it wasn't enough.

"It's nothing personal and we have sympathy for Mrs Taylor's situation, but we want it to stay as a squash club. I've been a member for 17 years and there's a special camaraderie that's been built up. The members would be devastated if it shut."

An emergency open meeting is to be held next Saturday at 10am to discuss the next moves in the battle to keep the club open.

Updated: 12:32 Saturday, March 08, 2003