FOOTBALL and cricket look set to continue on a Huddersfield sports field - despite the land being up for sale.
Bids close on December 23 for the former Britannia Sports Club ground at Salendine Nook.
Eddisons, agents for the sell-off, say the deal has generated interest from other sports clubs .
The five-acre ground and pavilion has been the site of one of the town's best sporting complexes for 70 years.
Britannia Sports Club went into liquidation earlier this year.
It was owned and run by past and present employees of Hopkinsons, the Birkby engineering company now part of the Weir group.
Increasing costs forced the sell-off as the facility was being under-used.
Andrew Backhouse, of Eddisons, said he was pleased by the interest shown.
He said it was looking increasingly likely the land could be occupied by another sports club on a long lease-hold basis.
Wildly varying figures for the value of the land - ranging between £20,000 and £2m - had been unhelpful, said Mr Backhouse.
Realistically, it would remain a sports facility.
"There is quite a bit of interest in it as a sports ground," he explained.
"The prospects of any development in the near future are nil."
There is no access to the area other than along a narrow track. The site is also firmly set down as a sports ground and urban green space under strict planning guidelines.
The council is obliged to develop brownfield sites before green space under Government rules.
Kirklees Council has also stressed the importance of not losing the region's sports grounds.
A green light to housebuilders at the ground "would go against everything Kirklees is trying to protect," added Mr Backhouse.
He said developers with longer-term plans could potentially buy the land to keep in their bank of acquisitions.
Even then, until any building is actually given the go-ahead, the land would continue its use as a games field.
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