Ballyspallen's return to senior cricket has unfortunately been short lived after the club announced on Friday that they have been forced to withdraw both their North West sides from competition forthwith.

The Bridge Park Club has had a chequered decade peaking in 2005 when they lost in the Northern Bank Senior Cup final to Glendermott before falling from grace the previous year and pulling out of Division 1 just days before the season was set to start.

A lot of hard work and commitment saw them apply for re-entry to Division 2 ahead of the 2010 season but it would appear that more internal strife has been their undoing, resulting in Friday's announcement.

Club secretary Ella McCloskey revealed that the decision to withdraw was taken on Thursday night after a series of failed attempts to steady the ship. "This is very much a last resort but without the commitment of enough players we just couldn't take the chance of the season unravelling on us. I'm bitterly disappointed, particularly for the Martin brothers, Rodney, Ivan, Brian and Mervyn as well as Sam McGregor, all of whom have been down at the ground every night for months in preparation for the season. We will be keeping a team in the Derry Midweek League this season and will work tirelessly to build the club back up again but this is not a good day for Ballyspallen".

The withdrawal leaves a quandry for the North West and in particular the fixture secretaries as Division 2 now goes down to an 8-team league however the Union is believed to be expecting to make a statement later this weekend.