A COMMUNITY cricket club has completed the conversion of one of the rooms in its pavilion to create a new focal point for village activity.

Lintz Cricket Club has redesigned and refurbish its existing two-storey lounge and bar area to create a new single-storey community room at its Lumley Gardens ground in Burnopfield with fully accessible doors, corridors and toilet.

The project stemmed from the increasing numbers of junior members and families who were making use of the club’s facilities, as well as the recent closure of two pubs within half a mile of the ground which had created a growing need for a new place for local people to come together.

As well as using its own resources, the club has received funding for the £30,000 project from Sport England and a £5,000 grant from The Banks Group.

An official opening event for the new room will be held before the start of the 2020 cricket season, but bookings are already beginning to come in from local people for private functions and events.

The club is also aiming to work with local schools and use the new community room as a ‘halfway house’ for vulnerable learners who are not attending school and their parents to use as they work towards returning to mainstream education.

Robert Jackson, president at Lintz Cricket Club, said: “Our junior sections are perhaps more popular than they’ve ever been, and having so many young people, parents and families around the club made us think about the facilities we were able to offer them.

“We also already have a number of community groups using our rooms, with more coming in after the pub closures, but it was pretty obvious that the layout wasn’t suitable for all their needs, as well as ours, and that we needed to make improvements.

“We’ve created a multi-functional, accessible all-year round community room that offers lots of floor space that’s suitable for different activities and we’re really pleased with how everything is now set up.”