KENT County Cricket Club chairman Carl Openshaw has spoken out in a bid to appease supporters conspiring to bring about an extraordinary general meeting and a possible vote of no confidence in the running of the Canterbury-based club.

As revealed last week, Surrey businessman Stewart Stennett has emerged as a leading light behind the bid to force a club EGM with a petition that now boasts 110 members’ signatures.

Mr Stennett, 58 - the father-in-law of former Kent all-rounder Mark Ealham - and his fellow petitioner Graham Long from Wadhurst, met with Mr Openshaw during last week’s championship match with Middlesex for a summit that appears to have bought about an uneasy peace.

For their part Messrs Stennett and Long agreed to halt proceedings toward an EGM until after the club’s post-season members’ forum at St Lawrence next month, but only if Mr Openshaw acknowledged the thrust of their petition and that Kent's plans for a members’ forum had followed their threat to force an EGM.

And though Mr Openshaw is asking petitioners and supporters to listen to what the club has to say before they consider their options, the threat of an EGM remains a very real one.

In a bid for conciliation, Mr Openshaw said: “We recognise that there are a number of cricketing issues which members wish to discuss and that is why we have arranged a forum on Tuesday, October 12 to be chaired by our new chairman of cricket Graham Johnson.

“Together with club captain David Fulton and coaches Simon Willis and Paul Farbrace, Graham will present a review of the season and a look ahead to next year. I very much hope that members will see this meeting as their opportunity to question the club’s cricket management team on issues which concern them.

“In the meantime, I have had discussions with Mr Long and others who have contemplated requisitioning a special general meeting and they have agreed to defer any such action for the time being.”

Commenting on the club’s finances and the future of county cricket, Mr Openshaw said: “The finances of county clubs, particularly those without the significant additional income enjoyed by Test-hosting grounds, have been under increasing pressure in recent years.

“The club’s management board are acutely aware of the challenges that lie ahead in trying to balance the need to produce a successful team on the field and good facilities at our grounds.

“There is always room for improvement, but I believe our chief executive Paul Millman and his management team are doing an excellent job and everyone involved is working hard for the future of Kent cricket.”

Though Kent suffered relegation for the first time in 2004 having taken the drop to totesport League Division 2, Mr Openshaw is sure the overall future of Kent cricket remains a rosy one.

“We have just finished runner’s-up in the county championship, English cricket’s premier competition, and many have echoed my view that this was an excellent achievement.

“The team won seven championship matches, two more than Warwickshire who won the title, and played for much of the season without Geraint Jones, Robert Key and Martin Saggers. We are proud that these Kent players all contributed to the highly successful summer enjoyed by the England team.

“At the same time, there was much encouragement in the performances of several young players who made their first team debuts this year and the fact Kent supplied three members of the England Under-19 side.

“Obviously it is disappointing to be relegated from the totesport League, but the other 17 first-class counties have all spent some time in the second division, our objective must be to achieve promotion as soon as possible.”

Mr Openshaw also went on the record to thank this season’s Kent president, former England batsman Brian Luckhurst, who has manfully completed his duties despite bouts of chemotherapy treatment for cancer of the oesophagus.

“I would like to take the opportunity of recording publicly the club’s appreciation of the enormous support given this year by our president, Brian Luckhurst.

"Despite his illness, which Brian has confronted in a typically courageous and positive manner, he and his wife, Raye, have regularly attended matches home and away and have been a constant source of support to the team, officials and officers of the club."