A COMMUNITY cricket club has been given a grant of £3,850 to help during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Lanchester Cricket Club was awarded the National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards unavoidable costs.

The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses on March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.

In response, Sport England announced a £195m package to help sporting organisations during the crisis.

Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.

The grant will allow Lanchester Cricket Club to cover standing charges such as electricity and gas, security, and insurances for the coming months.

The club’s president Dawn Fairlamb said: “Lanchester Cricket Club is delighted to secure this valuable grant from Sport England, like many community sports clubs we face an uncertain future with very few games if any expected to be played this summer.

“This means we will lose a considerable amount of income which we would normally use to run the club.

“This grant will ensure that we will be able to cover those unavoidable expenses and continue run this much-loved club for the village of Lanchester.”

Lanchester Cricket Club play in the North-East Premier League.

The first team play in Division One and the second team in Division Three.

It also has a third team playing in the same league structure and a number of junior sides which play in the Durham Cricket Board junior leagues.

There are under 19s, under 18s, under 15, under 13s and under 11s and the club is always looking for new players.

It runs the ECB sponsored All Stars and Dynamo’s for aspiring young players.

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future.

“The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Lanchester Cricket Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”

To find out more about funding for sports clubs visit:

sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/community-emergency-fund.