Aston Rowant’s 25-point penalty which cost them the Division 2 West title is on hold after the Home Counties Premier League agreed to stage a new disciplinary hearing.

The original hearing was called following a fight on the pitch between Rowant’s young Australian, Tim Miles, and Basingstoke & North Hants batsman, Dean Nurse, in a game three weeks ago.

Following a protest by Rowant, the league agreed that they did not follow the correct procedure in convening the meeting and hope to hold a new one next week.

At the hearing, Miles was banned for five years, while Rowant were deducted 25 points, which led to Reading finishing top of the table.

Now the title is in the balance again.

The league also banned Nurse for one year and imposed a five-point penalty on Basingstoke.

Neither Rowant nor Basingtoke were invited to attend the hearing, in contravention of the league’s ‘guidelines on the conduct of hearings and appeals.’ Paragraph 1a states: ‘The reported person should be given adequate notice of the allegations against him and the procedure to be followed, so that he may be in a position to make representations on his own behalf to appear at the hearing, to prepare his own case and answer the case against him.

‘The time and location of the hearing must also be properly notified to the reported person.”

Rowant say that neither they nor Basingstoke were in-formed of the date for the meeting.

Ray Wood, the league’s chairman, admits the clubs we’re not informed.

“We reckoned we had sufficient information to deal with the matter, without the need for the clubs to be there,” he explained.

“We had the umpires’ report, and had seen photographs in the paper, while the clubs had already taken action against their own players, indicating that they were guilty.”

Rowant chairman Gary Condon said: “ We just wanted to be given a fair hearing and be able to state our case.

“We’ve taken legal advice and sought clarification from the English Cricket Board, who came down on our side.

“We’ve pointed this out to the league, who have now decided to start the process again.”

On the about-turn, Wood said: “We just want to be fair to Rowant, so there will be a new meeting, with a different panel and a new chairman.”

“We’ve contacted Rowant to ask them when they will be ready to attend a new meeting and are still waiting to hear back from them.”

Meanwhile, about 300 people attended a thanksgiving service for former Oxfordshire captain Phil Garner at The Church of St Mary, Shipton-under-Wychwood, yesterday.

Garner died last week at the age of 63.