MALDON Cricket Club will look to rebuild after their relegation lifeline was pulled away from them at the weekend.

It has been confirmed that the club have been relegated from division one of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship after finishing second from bottom the previous week.

It had been hoped that the Drapers Farm club could have avoided the drop if champions Sudbury won their East Anglian Premier League promotion play-off against Godmanchester.

Sudbury did secure a 144-run victory and Maldon hoped that with them going up, only one side would drop down into division two and that would have been basement boys Elmstead Grasshoppers.

However, the league decided otherwise.

Outgoing Maldon skipper Martyn Coker said: “The Two Counties League have confirmed that we have been relegated.

“We will be in division two in 2016 with lots of travelling, up to Suffolk especially.

“As a club we need to look to build again, and relegation has been something we have narrowly avoided for the past few seasons.

“The club AGM is not until January, so nothing official can be confirmed regards new captains until then.

“However, the club is already actively looking at recruiting new players to bolster our first team squad and not lose any players to other clubs.

“We want to return to division one as soon as possible and I am really excited that we are doing everything we can to ensure that happens.”

The Two Counties League ruled that with Sudbury’s elevation back into the East Anglian Premier League, and with no team coming back down, three teams would be promoted from divisions two to seven into one to six.

So Haverhill, Ipswich & East Suffolk, Haverhill II, Elmstead Grasshoppers II, Worlington II, and East Bergholt II all now move up one division, in 2016.