Long Sutton Cricket Club have been given a grant to help them through the COVID-19 crisis.
As reported last week, the South Lincolnshire Premier Division club have had to deal with vandalism as well as the loss of income from not playing so far this season.
But they’ve now been awarded £2,310 of National Lottery funding from Sports England’s Community Emergency Fund which will go towards covering essential costs.
The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.
In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through COVID-19.
Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.
Club chairman Chris Booth said: “Long Sutton Cricket Club are very grateful to Sport England for this lifeline in difficult times; whilst there are clearly more important things in the world to worry about than local cricket it is good to know that with help like this, we will be here ready to start playing when life returns to some level of normality.”
Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future.
“The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.
“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Long Sutton Cricket Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”
