Horton, the local businessman who led Derbyshire from impending bankruptcy four years ago to financial security, announced his decision in a letter to members in which he made plain his disaffection with the committee process at the club.

Horton, who recently returned from a six-week trip to Florida, states: ``I have found it increasingly frustrating that my efforts have been consistently undermined by certain members of the committee, especially during my absences from the club.''

He also writes of ``hidden motives'' within the committee and points to the Dean Jones affair as an example of how ``Derbyshire's committee structure fails the members''.

He adds: ``Committees have the advantage of providing an escape from personal responsibility and identity - except of course for the chairman, who takes responsibility for reporting and implementing decisions whether or not he is in agreement.''

Horton's position became virtually untenable a fortnight ago, during his absence in Florida, where he has business interests, when the committee passed a ``vote of no confidence'' in his chair- manship but decided to leave it ``in abeyance'' until his return.

Instead of challenging this vote at the next meeting, later this month, Horton has stood down and in doing so has given the members, with whom he retains considerable respect and popularity.

He pinpoints three key decisions facing the committee - the completion of the purchase and funding of the Grandstand site at the county ground, the formation of a limited company, and the restructuring of the way in which the club is run.

All are contentious issues but it was, however, his part in denying the players the right to reply to Jones's parting criticisms which did most to put him in an invidious position, not least because the Australian had been his personal appointment.

Since Jones's departure, Ian Buxton, chairman of the cricket committee, resigned from that office and Les Stillman, the Australian coach who came with Jones, has been removed from all dealings with the playing staff at the club.

The task of putting an end to the prolonged divisions between committee and dressing-room now falls to vice-chairman Vic Brownett who last week persuaded the committee to drop fines of £1,500 against Kim Barnett for alleged breaches of a club ban on media comment on Jones' remarks.

Brownett seems certain to be voted into the chair this month but the job remains fraught with difficulty.

Barnett will not drop his appeal to Lord's against the club's disciplinary action without a full public apology and complete exoneration.

Brownett must also decide whether to grant Chris Adams' recent request to be released from the last year of his contract, knowing that such a decision would in- evitably prompt similar requests from several other disenchanted players, probably including Barnett, Dominic Cork and Karl Krikken.