A CRICKET club which has seen its membership increase tenfold over the past few years is on target with its improvement plan.

Barnard Castle Cricket Club is approaching the £50,000 needed to build changing rooms for its ground at Vere Road.

The club has a flourishing junior section with nearly 140 members.

It also has 135 adult members, of which 35 are women.

However, it still uses changing rooms built in 1832, which have no showers or electricity.

To be able to build the changing rooms the club must raise nearly £17,000. It is now nearing the total and is awaiting confirmation of a £33,000 grant from the English Cricket Board's Community Club Development Fund.

It is hoped work can begin on the stone changing rooms, which will be built next to the cricket social club, before the end of the year.

The club's development officer, John Walker, said: "We've got all the kids coming through and we've done all the coaching courses.

"We've got all the ticks in the boxes.

"But we need some reasonable changing facilities, we have got no showers or electricity, just a tap and a basin."

A few years ago, the club had only a handful of junior players, so its members sent a letter to local schools inviting pupils to coaching sessions on Wednesday nights.

More than 80 boys and girls turned up to the first session and the membership of the junior section has increased since then.

It is now one of the Durham Cricket Board's Focus Clubs because of the way it is taking cricket into the local community.

The club is also taking part in the English Cricket Board's Chance to Shine project, which aims to increase participation in cricket in school.

Coaches from the club will organise sessions at Teesdale schools.

The changing rooms will conform to the cricket board's Safe Hands child protection policy and league standards.

Mr Walker added: "It really will be a benefit to the whole of the community."