St Lawrence & Highland Court Cricket Club look certain to be playing in the Shepherd Neame Kent League Division 1 next year despite finishing third in this summer’s Premier Division title race.

The Bridge club have fallen foul of a ruling that all clubs playing in the Premier Division of an ECB-funded league must have Clubmark status, Sport England’s national accreditation scheme which encourages clubs to operate well-run junior sections.

St Lawrence acquired Clubmark status in 2007 but their three-year accreditation period expired in January and they failed to renew it before the deadline of October 1.

As a result, Kent League officials announced at a clubs’ meeting last week that St Lawrence would be demoted to Division 1 next season.

Errol Valentine, the league’s results and players’ registration secretary, said: "St Lawrence have failed to renew their Clubmark status and therefore they are not eligible to play in the Premier Division in 2011.

"Every club who plays in the Premier Division receives a £1,000 funding from the ECB each year but if one club in the division does not have Clubmark status, then they all lose that funding.

"It is not in our power to grant St Lawrence a period of grace in which to sort out their Clubmark, only the ECB can do that but they (St Lawrence) have known about this situation for two years and don’t seem to have done anything about it."

Clair Gould, the Kent Cricket Board’s community cricket team manager, added: "We’ve been in contact with St Lawrence a few times and they’ve had every opportunity to get it sorted."

Lewis Jenkins, the St Lawrence secretary (pictured), said: "I don’t want to comment until we have received something in writing from the league but I believe the club is planning to get in touch with the ECB about the situation."