Tom Dean reveals how the price for a highly successful Kent club’s refusal to pay any players has been a sequence of events that have led them to a collapse in status

Happier times: Hartley celebrate winning the 2015 league title

Hartley Country Club have been the Kent League Premier Division champions in six of the last 11 years but come the start of next season they will find themselves playing their cricket down in Division Five.
Since they won promotion back to the top-tier last season the club has experienced a mass exodus of players that has left it with less than half of its...