NEW cricket nets have proved a big hit with players after the previous ones were wrecked by vandals.

A £2,500 grant from the Gloucestershire County Council Active Together fund enabled Parkend Cricket Club to replace them and buy a new bowling machine.

Michael Andrew, club youth development officer, said: “We were so disappointed that somebody should damage the nets. Our junior practice nights attract around 50 children and the nets are a big part of training.

“We run three successful junior sides and two adult teams in a local league.”

County Councillor Ric­hard Leppington (UKIP, Blakeney and Bream), who helped obtain the funding, said: “Sport is so important for youngsters in terms of fitness and instilling discipline.

“I am pleased that I was able to help the club to get the funding that they needed”

In August 2015, cricket club members were left devastated after their ground was vandalised four times in one week, just days before Parkend carnival was due to be held there.

Members discovered the cricket nets wrecked and the carnival flags pulled down on a Saturday morning, after police had been called to an incident in Parkend at around 2am, when a group of people were reported to be making noise in the village, and leaving behind broken bottles, discarded cans and ‘general rubbish’.

Reports on social media at the time said that a villager, disturbed by the noise, followed the group back to a local holiday resort and campsite, though whether the group were staying there was unclear.