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Old Boys match called off

This year’s Harris Bay and Somerset Old Boys charity cricket match has been cancelled and the future of the annual event now hangs in the balance.The game was due to be held at Somerset Cricket Club tomorrow but will not be played, Harris Bay and Somerset Old Boys treasurer Ronald Scraders confirmed.“This is very sad because a lot of people were looking forward to the game,” he said.Scraders explained that event organisers ran into difficulties after chairman Gary Williams resigned.“About a month ago he (Williams) said he’s tired of being chairman and it’s time for someone else to take the job,” added Scraders. “He hasn’t legally resigned or even come in and said ‘here’s my letter of resignation’ or nothing like that which has put us between a rock and a hard place.”Scraders said attempts to arrange a meeting with Williams proved futile.“We have been trying to arrange a meeting with him for the past several weeks to try and get something going, but he wouldn’t budge,” he added. “I said ‘Gary we have to get together and get this thing on the road’. But he doesn’t want any part of it or wants to do it anymore and we need a chairman to organise this thing.”Williams, who served as Harris Bay and Somerset Old Boys committee chairman for a decade, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by this newspaper.“Right now I am out of it so I have no comment on it whatsoever,” was all Williams was prepared to say. “I resigned last year and have had nothing to do with it since.”The Harris Bay and Somerset Old Boys match is the brainchild of Harrington Zuill (Harris Bay) and Freddy Tucker (Somerset) and was first played in 1952.Since then the event has raised more than $70,000 for local charities.Last year’s beneficiary was the Bermuda Heart Foundation.Somerset won last year’s match at Somerset Cricket Club by 32 runs to retain their crown.Guiding the champions to victory were skipper Jeff Richardson who thumped a brisk 31 and seamer Vance Gilbert who returned figures of four for 30.