INCREASING costs, the lack of a sponsor and bad luck with the weather have combined to bring down the curtain on the annual Harrogate Cricket Festival which has been played at St George's Road since 1974.

And Harrogate Cricket Club say that Yorkshire's decision not to take championship cricket back to the ground next year was another factor in deciding to pull the plug on the festival.

Peter Clarke, the festival's chairman for the last 15 years, said: "The withdrawal of Yorkshire from St George's Road two years' ago spelled the death knell for the festival because it ended its first class status.

"Then Costcutter ended their sponsorship after the 1997 festival and this year we were without a sponsor and actually lost money for the first time.

"We were further hit when Yorkshire had to drop out of the festival because of their involvement in the Benson and Hedges Cup semi-finals and then the weather was so atrocious that only one-and-a-half hours of cricket were possible over the three days.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed the festival and being its chairman but I was strongly in favour of bringing it to a close. The days of festival cricket are waning and it is becoming a struggle to get counties to take part.

"We have included Scotland in the festival for the last couple of years but people are not really interested in watching them play. It also has to be accepted that many county players are not really bothered about playing festival cricket nowadays and they only turn up because they have to.

"I am not blaming Yorkshire for our situation but their decision not to bring championship cricket back to St George's Road next year made us agree that it was not worth the risk of holding another festival without financial support.

"Although the festival began in 1974, it was when Tilcon started their 18-year sponsorship of the four counties knockout tournament a couple of years later that it really became established.

"The festival has meant a hell of a lot to Harrogate Cricket Club and it has enjoyed some wonderful times."

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