Bury St Edmunds avoided finishing bottom of the East Anglian Premier League, after their home match against Cambridge Granta, and basement dwellers Horsford’s game at Great Witchingham, ended in ‘no results’ due to the wet weather.

It had been officially announced, last week, that no club would be relegated from the EAPL this season, due to none of the champions from the three feeder leagues wanting to be promoted to the top flight.

But for Bury it was still important not to finish in that one ‘relegation’ slot, following yet another season of struggle.

The Victory Ground club only won four matches all summer, and would have finished bottom but for Horsford’s 30-point deduction for producing an unfit pitch for the match against Copdock in late July.

But the mere fact that they finished 11th out of 12 clubs, was a cause for optimism for captain Sean Park, who has had to lead a very young squad this summer.

“It’s pleasing that we haven’t finished bottom, because people can’t say that the only reason we stayed up was because no one wanted to come up,” explained all-rounder Park.

“The majority of the season was disappointing, and it did not help that we have struggled for availability of players, and so continuity of team selection.

“We have been fighting near the bottom for the last three years, with just a few experienced players in the team and the rest being young and inexperienced.

“We recruited even more youngsters last summer, and hopefully they will hang around for the next three years because we would then have the makings of a good side.

“The club has had to make do with what’s been on offer, because a lot of players don’t want to join a club that is struggling all the time. But even though the club has struggled, we have still not gone down and hopefully some of the lads will be a little bit wiser going forward,” added Park.

Park himself would like to continue in the role of Bury skipper, going forward.

The South African confirmed: “A lot might happen over the next few months, but personally I’d like to carry on, if the role was offered to me again.”

Cambridge had reached 204 for seven when the rain arrived on Saturday, causing the match to be abandoned as a draw.