Social Club may be given a reprieve and allowed to compete in future Central Counties matches, despite failing to show for last Saturday's opening round game against cup holders Police at Police Field.

Interim Counties president Richard Austin indicated this week he would not push the panic button and throw Social Club out of the competition, although he admitted to being disappointed by the club's no-show.

It marked the second time this season that Social Club had defaulted to Police. They also failed to muster enough players for the Premier Division season opener on May 2.

They also forfeited their league game against Devonshire Rec. on May 8 and on Sunday against St. George's managed to rustle up just seven players.

Bermuda Cricket Board of Control, concerned about previous forfeitures, had been assured by Social Club that they would field a team for Saturday's counties match.

Club skipper Webster Mills was among a handful of players who showed up on Saturday on time. But additional players failed to show despite telephone calls to their homes.

"Taking into context what has happened the previous two games involving us and Social Club, it was disappointing both from a cricketing perspective and a Central Counties management perspective that they failed to show up on Saturday,'' said Austin, who is also a prominent member of the Police team.

"Already the Counties have lost Nationals in the past couple of seasons and with Social Club not showing and struggling to field a team in every game they have been scheduled to play this season, it doesn't look too promising for next season.'' But Austin supported the position taken by BCBC president El James recently when he said that all attempts would be made to encourage Social Club to persevere as it was important to include as many players as possible who wanted to play the sport.

"We really went overboard to make sure that they tried to get their players to the ground on Saturday,'' said Austin. "At 11 o'clock they had about five players and we decided to give them until about 11.45, but we had to take a stand after that.''