KENT County Cricket Club sliced almost £100,000 off the previous year’s operating losses but still finished the 2001 campaign in the red for the second successive season.

Despite winning their first trophy since 1995, the county lost £40,123 for the year ending October 31, 2001 - following a £138,330 deficit for the millennium summer.

Though the overall figures are far rosier this time around, Kent’s accounts to go before the club’s annual meeting on Monday, March 4 do show some worrying trends.

After last year’s substantial increase in fees, membership dropped by 631 to 4,867 for a county that once boasted a 7,000-plus membership.

Despite the fall in members match receipts went up by £62,697 - a shade over £15,000 of which came from the day-night friendly with Lashings. Income from basic ECB distribution of Test profits also rose by £45,579 to £1.42million.

The club’s Ames Levett indoor sports centre saw its turnover drop by £21,247 to £179,059, but a dramatic decrease in costs and expenditure led to a record surplus.

A three-man cut in playing staff reduced the wage bill for players and coaching by £2,500 to just under £1.1m and although administration salaries went up by a shade over £8,000 to top £203,000 the back-room team drew in their belts and cut costs and expenses in almost every area.

Marketing showed a slight improvement in revenue of around £5,000 to bring in £547,996, while costs and expenditure in the section fell by £42,000.

Profits on the county’s catering franchise rose by £3,500 to boost the coffers by £66,182 overall – figures that led to a new contract for caterers Morton’s Fork.

The cost of promoting the game at grass roots level also increased with expenditure on cricket development rising by £7,458 to £85,269, while ground operation costs went up by £22,835 to reach £164,240.

Club chairman Carl Openshaw said: “You can see from the figures that we have concentrated on cutting costs while at the same time battling to increase our income. We have a new marketing team in place who are working hard in a difficult financial environment to maximise income. We were also helped by an increase in our basic ECB distribution of about five per cent.

“I am afraid there is a trend of diminishing memberships across all the counties and Kent are doing as well as any in maintaining our membership numbers. We had to increase subscriptions last year to make them more economic but still feel our rates are good value for money.

“We will be working hard to attract new members in the future and hope that last year’s success on the field will help in that area.”