For the first time in a quarter of a century, Sid’s Seafood will be off the menu at an Eastern Counties cricket match.

Gary Caisey, owner of the popular seafood concession, has suspended his services indefinitely in protest against a spate of controversies that have marred the competition.

Tempers flared at last month’s opening round of featuring Cleveland County, the champions, and Bailey’s Bay, the challengers, which ended in a heated and controversial draw at Lords.

Cleveland retained their title but were later stripped of it by the Eastern Counties Cricket Association, which then upheld an appeal to be reinstated as champions.

The ECCA’s latest decision was strongly rejected by Bailey’s Bay, who have since withdrawn their involvement in Eastern Counties matches at senior and junior levels.

Mr Caisey, a past president of Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club, fears the competition could lose its appeal if its organisers continue to make decisions that he feels are having a detrimental effect.

“The situation is so bad now that I don’t feel like going to the Eastern Counties, and I have been doing it for 25 years,” he said. “I just want to let my customers know that I am kind of protesting because if the Eastern Counties does not get back to its glory days, we are going to lose a tradition.

“Every other year that someone is protesting the more and more people are going to stay away.

“The executive of the Eastern Counties are all volunteer members who are trying to keep a nice tradition going. The executive work hard to do that but there has been so much controversy that we are in danger of losing our Eastern Counties and that’s sad because I have been going to the Eastern Counties all of my life, and I am not a young fellow.

“Their hearts are in the right place but some of these decisions that have been made are not benefiting the Eastern Counties — the damage has already been done.

“The Eastern Counties is becoming a territorial kind of thing where it’s, ‘my club, my club’. It’s not really a ‘my club’ situation but the Eastern Counties, and that’s what we are going to lose if we keep making bad decisions.

“The Eastern Counties leaders need to start thinking Eastern Counties instead of Flatts or Bailey’s Bay.

“I want to see the Eastern Counties flourish as one body and that’s why I am upset that we are having these sort of incidents that have been allowed to go this far.”

Mr Caisey apologised to his customers and shrugged off any suggestion that his protest had anything to do with the actions taken by his club, Bailey’s Bay.

“I really feel for all of the people who are the ones losing in this situation and that’s why I said it’s really sad how we got to this point,” he said. “We have a very nice group of people that come out to Eastern Counties and the Eastern Counties people know who I am talking about.

“The Eastern Counties association has an obligation to get this thing right without bias. Right now I feel as though there’s a wedge being driven into the association and all the groups are separating and we do not need this in the kind of group. We have to be able to find leadership that can take us past that.”