City of Peterborough Hockey Club are in National League limbo and their inspirational skipper leaves after nine years at Bretton Gate

Frustratingly City had one Division One North match still to play when a win would probably have lifted them out of the relegation zone.

They are now at the mercy of National League officials who are due to meet to discuss the fairest way to determine outstanding relegation and promotion issues.

Whether City stay in Division One North or are relegated to the National League East Conference they will be seeking a new captain as Ross Booth has elected to leave Bretton Gate for a club nearer his Lincoln home.

Booth has spent nine years at City, eight of them as skipper.

Booth said: “Hopefully the league will do the sensible thing, which is relegate teams from each league that were already down, but keep one extra team up as our last game could have meant any of three teams go down.

“It is also a frustrating end to my playing career at City. It’s been a privilege to captain them for eight years.”

City manager Graham Finding paid tribute to Booth on behalf of the club.

He said: “Ross will be sadly missed. He has always epitomised all that you would want in a captain in terms of leadership, commitment, the way he conducts himself on and off the pitch, and not least his quality of play on it.

“Ross has always led by example, with his attendance at training and matches being second to none, but he has now made the tough decision that, now he has tepped to manage his family farm, he can no longer commit to travelling an hour each way for training and home games, and does not feel that a less committed approach would be viable.

“When hockey, like the rest of life, returns to some form of normality, we hope to put some form of testimonial in place for Ross, to properly show our appreciation for his outstanding commitment to the club.

“From our perspective in the National League we realistically expected to get a win at home against Birmingham, who sit with nothing to play for, in our final game so we are very disappointed to not be playing.

“If the league simply finishes now, then I guess we will be relegated, but there are a number of big and influential clubs throughout the leagues who would not be happy to see the season simply concluded on the basis of where they currently stand in the table.

“Perhaps our best hope is that they will pressure, with some influence that we perhaps wouldn’t have, for a resolution that might yet give us a chance of retaining Our Division One status.”

* The East Leagues for men and women have also finished early with points per game percentages applied to decide divisional champions.

Those percentages have already been applied, although there are still some outstanding disciplinary issues to be sorted before all final placings are confirmed.