JUST as Durham County Cricket Club celebrates winning Test match status, one of the most remote clubs in the region brings its innings to a close.

The demise of Weardale CC brings down the final curtain on what was once a rich seam of cricket clubs throughout the Durham dale.

Sadly, Weardale was the sole survivor.

But through a combination of an entire season lost because of the foot-and-mouth crisis, and difficulties in recruiting players, it has had to call it a day.

"It's a sad fact, but there's just not the interest in cricket in the dale which there used to be," said Ray Snaith, an official and player with the club since it started.

"We have been fighting a losing battle in trying to recruit new players for the past few seasons."

Ironically, Weardale played its first match in 1992 - the same year the Durham county team played their initial first-class county game.

And they have been forced to wind up at the same time as the county ground at Chester-le-Street has been chosen as a Test match arena.

Durham county councillor John Shuttleworth, who has been responsible for a dramatic revival in the fortunes of the football side at St John's Chapel, said: "The loss of the last league cricket club in the the dale is very sad.

"It's not only a blow to sport, but to the social life of Weardale. When things like this fold up, they never seem to come back.

"It's ironic that, when Durham county is celebrating such success in the cricket world, the last club in Weardale should disappear."

During the 1950s and 1960s, when cricket was in its heyday, there were three clubs at Stanhope and two at Wolsingham alone - with others dotted around villages in the dale.

Weardale started their career in 1992 in Division D of the Darlington and District League. They won promotion to Division A in 1999.

But last season, like many other clubs in County Durham and North Yorkshire, their games were cancelled because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Before that, the club had lost their clubhouse and tearoom with the closure of the Eastgate Leisure Centre by Wear Valley District Council, although the players still had access to the changing rooms.

The club also had to go begging for equipment to maintain their pitch, in the shadow of the Blue Circle Cement works at Eastgate. Mowers borrowed to cut the playing square often broke down.

But the biggest problem they faced, as the deadline approached for entry to the league next season, was a shortage of players, particularly young ones.

Sadly, this has proved overwhelming.