FUNDRAISING efforts for a cricket club hoping to rise from the ashes of an arson attack have got off to a flying start.

Members of Spennymoor Cricket Club are hoping to raise £50,000 to build a new pavilion following the attack which destroyed it and most of the club's belongings earlier this month.

The damage was so great that the wooden building could not be repaired and even though the club had insurance with Spennymoor Town Council, the pay-out was not enough to replace the pavilion like-for-like.

The club now hopes to build a brick structure with showers in its place.

In an effort to raise funds, members and staff from Spennymoor Town Council volunteered to host a raffle at Spennymoor Town Football Club's latest friendly with Hartlepool United Football Club on July 21.

A total of £525 was raised after fans from both sides purchased tickets.

Spennymoor Town Council clerk, Katherine Hierons, said all the staff had pulled together to make the raffle a success and were blown away by the generosity of supporters as they sold out of tickets.

She said: "The members and staff did it in their own time so I was really pleased to see everyone was willing to come together.

"It was really great to see fans from both sides contributing and were so enthusiastic about building a new club.

"We took five books of raffle tickets and sold all 500. We were absolutely delighted with the support.

"The cricket club is invaluable to the town as they are bringing up the young people into the club and several generations have gone through it."

Two prizes remain unclaimed, two bottles of wine, on yellow raffle tickets 260 and 100. If you have either of these tickets call in to the Town Hall on the High Street in Spennymoor and produce your ticket to collect your prize. Prizes will be kept until August 30 before being put back into a raffle at the next fundraiser on September 1, at the Spennymoor Town Show.

Information about the fire can be reported to police on 101, quoting incident 481 of July 7. Donations can be made via Raise Spennymoor Cricket Club from the Ashes on Facebook, at Spennymoor Town Hall or The Victoria Inn, on Villiers Street.