A CRICKET club's pavilion has been destroyed by arsonists.

Now members of Bradley and Colnebridge Cricket club are faced with having to rebuild their pavilion after the building was gutted by fire.

The pavilion, off Warrenside, Deighton, was set alight early on Saturday morning after vandals climbed in through the roof.

The building, which housed showers, equipment and changing rooms, was all but destroyed by the time firefighters put out the blaze.

The pavilion was opened in July 1997 by former vice-president of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Alec Lodge following an injection of £38,914 from the National Lottery Fund.

Now the cricket club has to build a new pavilion from scratch by April when the new cricket season starts.

Club chairman for 42 years Raymond Hawkyard said: "I feel sick. It's not very nice when you've worked hard for many years and someone takes a match to it.

"At Christmas it puts extra pressure on us because we have to sort out the insurance.

"Some of the walls are remaining but they'll have to come down because it's not safe."

Club sponsorship secretary Steve Ashwell said: "It's not the first time vandals have got into the pavilion through the roof.

"I've helped raised around £8,000 for the club and now that money's gone.

"It's sickening. I don't know what we're going to do. Bradley is becoming terrible.

"There are a lot of bad influences about.

"The pavilion was a community thing. It wasn't just there for cricket. We've never turned anybody away."

* Vandals broke into Fartown High School and set two classrooms alight on Saturday afternoon.

Firefighters, armed with breathing apparatus and hose reels, braved a smoke-filled corridor to contain the blaze.

Both classrooms were badly damaged.

Fire crew manager Daryl Schofield said: "It was lucky we caught it so quickly. If it had got going we would have lost a large part of the school."