Members of a Brentwood cricket club have been bowled over by a lottery grant of nearly £50,000 towards a new pavilion.

The Bentley Cricket Club, based in Coxtie Green Road, currently uses a ramshackle American World War II pre-fab, bought second hand for £92 when it moved to its current ground in 1964.

Now the grant means the club can replace it with a brand new pavilion fit for the 21st Century.

"Everybody is over the moon," said club chairman Dave Smith.

"We have been trying to get a grant for about four years now, and the paper work is horrendous.

"Our current pavilion is falling to bits. The roof is leaking and the wooden floor is rotting. We had to do something and this would have been its last season, regardless. We could probably blow it down!"

The £48,186 grant is intended to supplement the money the club has raised towards the estimated £74,000 cost of the new pavilion.

It will also be used to buy new training facilities, including nets and an artificial wicket so the club can stage two colts games at once.

Organiser Nick Hammond said: "The colts range from seven to 16-years-old and we have about 80 boys in all who participate in local leagues. We have a very strong youth policy and most of the current first team have come up through the colts.

"New facilities will obviously give us the opportunity to host more matches, and we are intending to offer the facilities to local schools if they want to take it up, and generally try to bring more youngsters into cricket."

Brentwood MP Eric Pickles said: "This is marvellous news.

"Cricket is going through something of renaissance after a very successful world cup season and some very exciting championship matches this year.

"A new club house will be a very important addition to a very good cricketing side."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.