A CRICKET club hoping to establish itself as one of the finest in the region staged a fundraising event to help buy equipment.

The race day and barbecue at Mainsforth Cricket Club, near Ferryhill, yesterday, was held to raise money to buy sight screens and covers for the pitch.

The Mainsforth Sports Complex, where the club plays, has undergone tremendous improvements, and recently staged a county game at under-16 level.

Now the club is aiming to raise enough money to replace its ageing sight screens, which cost more than £800 each, and to buy new covers at a cost of about £6,000.

John Irvine, club secretary and treasurer, said: "If we want to become a club that's regarded as first class, that's what we've got to do.

"We may not be first class on the playing front, but we are as far as the ground goes.

"Ferryhill Town Council has worked with us over the years and come up with lots of ideas.

"We had a problem when the pit first closed because it was taken over by Mainsforth Parish Council, which wasn't big enough to look after it.

"It was taken over by Sedgefield Borough Council, but since Ferryhill Town Council took it over in 1989 we've seen it progress."