Hastings Golf and Country Club Ltd has gone into liquidation leaving the 250 members uncertain about the future.

When trading ceased last Thursday another company, Ridgewoods Ltd became the operator, but members are unclear as to who owns the course.

A notice posted on the premises by Colin Henshaw, who was the only director of Hastings Golf and Country Club Ltd, says that memberships are valid until next February when the situation will have been reviewed.

In the meantime, members have been asked to keep the course tidy as Onyx, the company who had a contract for the maintenance of the course, have pulled out taking their machinery with them.

Yet 18 months ago Onyx said they were looking forward to working with the new owner and carrying on caring for the course as they had done so competently for many years.

It was then that Sat Lally, 29, with no previous experience of course management, emerged as the new boss. But he lasted just over a year after fronting the purchase of the freehold from Cinque Ports Leisure Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

The deal transferred the course from a municipal responsibility to a proprietorial pay-and-play ownership and promised cut-price golf.

But, in March this year, Lally cleared his desk and Colin Henshaw appeared to put the record straight, saying that Lally had never been the sole proprietor, nor a shareholder of the company. Now, however, Hastings Golf and Country Club Ltd does not exist and Ridgewoods Ltd has been started in the name of Colin's wife, Deborah.

Roy Honeyman, vice-captain of the club, described the situation as, "very unsatisfactory."

Honeyman, a former director of the club and member for 18 years, blamed Hastings council for the confusion.

"It is the council that has let us down. The members could have come up with a plan to buy the course but the council didn't want that. And, if they had bought it for the town they would have had 250 acres of prime estate land upon which some houses could have been built.

"Only a month ago Colin Henshaw told everybody that everything was OK. Since then I've been away on holiday and the company has gone into liquidation. What happens after next February is anbody's guess."