CLAYTON WEST face a race against time to get their premises ready for the start of the new Drakes League season on April 17.

Burst pipes in their Back Lane headquarters has left the clubhouse in a totally flooded state, and threatens to wreck their planned start to the new season!

But at the moment the club are waiting for the green light from the insurance company before they can make a start on repair work.

“We believe the pipes started leaking during the big freeze but it wasn’t discovered until someone opened up to use the bowling machine,” said chairman Simon Thornhill.

“We have been opening the club up at weekends during the winter, and leaving the heating on constantly, so we think the pipes may have been leaking for up to five days.

“And the clubhouse is completely flooded, in the bar area, kitchen and dressing rooms.

“We’ve had a rough estimate and been told it will cost into the tens of thousands to repair all the damage and replace what has been wrecked.

“We’ve been assured that it will be ready for the start of the season, but there is lot of work to be done. The kitchen has to be ripped out, along with the skirting boards, front of the bar and the kick boards, and walls re-plastered and left to dry out for a month, plus it has to be de-sanitised because it was affected by flood water, so it is going to be a long job.

“We’ve taken the carpets up, and had some industrial de-humidifiers in the clubhouse to try and dry the place out and we are emptying half a barrel of water out every couple of days, it is that wet, and the walls of the changing rooms are starting to go mouldy.

“On the plus side, we’ve been told the seating round the edges can probably be salvaged by deep cleansing, a process often used in flood situations.

“But at the moment I’m afraid it’s a waiting game because we are in the hands of the insurance company, and until they give us the ok we can’t make a start on making good the damage.”

The burst pipes disaster is just the latest in a series of blows to hit Clayton over the last 12 months.

It began with an alleged vicious assault on Australian pace bowler Chris Thompson which ended his season and resulted in him going home early.

And it then finished with the first team getting relegated and fined for playing an overseas man who was not registered correctly (which only came to light after their unlikely end-of-season win over Skelmanthorpe) and culminated in them being docked a massive amount of points for the offence.

This year Clayton West, who will be skippered by Mark Firth, will be aiming to impress in the inaugural Frank Platt Championship with the hope they can mount a promotion challenge in order to get back into the Premiership.

Assuming their renovation work is completed on time, Firth will lead his side out for their first game at home to Shelley on April 17, while a fortnight later they entertain Almondbury in the first round of this season’s Romida Sykes Cup.