Clubs will vote at an extraordinary general meeting at Pudsey Congs on Thursday, November 13 on whether Brighouse should remain in the league after the Russell Way's outfit's disastrous 2008 campaign.

Brighouse's league representative Russell Livesey has high hopes the club will survive the vote but admits there is no "plan B" and ejection might mean only the club's four junior sides operating next season.

News of the vote arrived in a bombshell letter to secretary Peter Bradley this week. It came in the wake of a meeting between Livesey and Bradley and league officials on September 16.

Livesey said that meeting had been requested by Brighouse and officials were disappointed and surprised that their place was now under threat.

Brighouse picked up only 23 points in Division One this summer - next-to-bottom Bowling Old Lane got 162 and champions Woodlands 340 - and their second team failed to fulfil two fixtures.

The league's management committee says in the letter that "the league has been brought into serious disrepute" by Brighouse.

Livesey said Brighouse's poor year had been triggered by the loss of most of the first team in the build-up to the season and the decision to bring in local businessman and player David Ryan to run the first team had not worked out.

The experienced David Maloney took over the captaincy from Ryan early in the season but Brighouse were bowled out for a string of low scores and also had two points deducted for breaches of umpire assessment regulations.

Livesey said: "We have had a very worrying 12 months and we are not proud of what has happened."

However, he added that Brighouse had been on the trail of five or six potential new signings for 2009 and he was confident that both the club's teams would be competitive in the much lower standard of Division Two cricket.

"Unfortunately everything we have done since the end of the season has had to be put on hold.

"But I expect us to be playing in the Bradford League next year and we have had lots of messages of support.

"We will certainly find out who our friends are."

Brighouse moved to the plush Russell Way complex in 2004 after Tesco purchased their former ground near the town centre.

Livesey said: "We may have great facilities but the problem is the make-up of the club and a lack of manpower."

He said the financial demands in the top section of the Bradford League were immense and the pressure would ease off in the lower section.

Livesey confirmed that Brighouse had sounded out the Halifax League a few months ago but had been told there were no vacancies.

"We have nothing else in the pipeline. What would happen if we lost our place would probably be that we would become a junior club next season."