Pavilion plans to be unveiled

Ambitious £245,000 plans to build a new pavilion at an historic Black Country cricket club will be unveiled next week – three months after the old building was set alight.

Members of the Lye club in Stourbridge Road hope to have the building up for next season in time to mark the club's 150th anniversary. The wooden pavilion was reduced to ashes in the early hours of August 30 this year.

Fire investigators declared the cause of the blaze to be arson, but no-one has yet been arrested.

The building was packed with memorabilia from the club's past, including old photos dating back to the early 19th century.

Club historian David Perks said by good fortune checks had revealed copies had been made of most of the destroyed photographs.

He said they would go up in the new building, which will be modelled closely on the old pavilion but be made of brick.

An archway with a clock and scoreboard will form its centrepiece, while new practice nets will also be brought in.

Mr Perks said: "We hope to have the building up by next season, I think the planning application is due to go in next week.

"The insurance value is £150,000, we should be getting £10,000 from the council and we have other bits and bobs, but we are still around £60,000 short.

"There are plenty of other grants we are pursuing, but if anyone can help we would urge them to get in touch.

"The same goes for the pictures. We have copies of a lot but not of the really early ones.

"If the public have any pictures of Lye Cricket Club, we would love to hear from them."

Anyone who can help with fundraising or old pictures can contact Mr Perks on 01384 423458.