ALL the York Cricket and Rugby Union Club wants is fair play - both on and off the pitch.

Its latest match is a David and Goliath affair. Club members are taking on the might of the taxman. We are rooting for the underdog: a win would hit for six the financial system which threatens sports facilities up and down Britain.

The Shipton Road club receives 100 per cent business rate relief. Nevertheless members decided they must contest its high rateable value of £15,290.

As club secretary Chris Houseman told the tribunal: "Valuations are forever, concessions from politicians can only be regarded as temporary."

Without those concessions, the future can be bleak. Just ask any former member of the York Civil Service Sports Club.

It closed a year ago after drowning in a sea of debt, exacerbated by the decision of City of York Council to stop offering rate relief.

Mr Houseman is absolutely right to claim that the rateable system is unfair. The assessment of a club's potential rentable value is too subjective. And if that is wrong, it means that comparisons between neighbouring clubs' bills are instantly undermined.

The system is flawed and confused. Moreover, it is an example of disjointed political thinking.

We are told that Britain is facing an obesity epidemic. Too many children are not active enough.

Yet sports clubs like this one, which do so much to promote fitness in young and old alike, are imperilled by unfair tax demands.

Sports clubs are already being hit by hikes in public liability insurance. Meanwhile, school fields are being sold at an unprecedented rate.

So a victory in the valuation tribunal would be an overdue fillip to every amateur sportsman and woman in the land.

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, April 22, 2004