A CRICKET club has been bowled over with a heap of cash to give it a facelift.

Warton Cricket Club has been given £15,000 By Defra as part of its Rural Enterprise Scheme.

The club sits next to the main West Coast railway line and every time the teams play they face the risk of retrieving the ball from the railway line.

The grant has helped to fund the relocation and enlargement of the cricket square.

Club member Peter Robinson says: "The Defra funding was excellent news for us. It means we can increase the number of pitches from nine to twelve and we also hope to build our club membership and the number of fixtures we are able to play.

"The sheer number of high speed trains has made it unacceptably dangerous, which is why we were desperate to move the square."

He says the club is also doing everything it can to raise another £15,000 for new practice equipment for its 35 senior and 50 junior members.

The changes will get under way at the start of the close season next month to enable the new cricket square to seed and grow in time for next summer.