A VILLAGE cricket club plagued by problems this year is hoping for a bright new future.

Officials at Denby Dale Cricket Club have taken the first major step to securing a better 2008.

They called in the experts this week to dig up their cricket square – badly damaged this summer by floods and then by vandals.

The club was forced to cancel several games after July’s devastating floods left the cricket field under water.

Once the water subsided, a layer of filthy silt was left across the field, which damaged the square.

And just when it looked as though officials were getting back on their feet, vandals struck. They dug holes in the square and dumped large stones from a drystone wall across the wickets.

Club chairman Richard Hobson said: “The square has to be relaid after all the problems we have had.

“Contractors came in this week with all their heavy machinery and did the job of getting up the old turf.

“Now they are going to put down the fertiliser and the new seed and if we get decent weather, it should take.

“I would urge people who visit the field to keep clear of the newly-laid square as there will be a lot of fertiliser on there which could be harmful.

“It has been a bad summer with the weather and the floods but now we have reasons to be optimistic”.

Funding for the repairs have come from the England and Wales Cricket Board flood relief fund – set up after many clubs up and down the country were hit in the summer.