YOUNG cricketers at Marlborough are celebrating the news that they have won a £1,200 Awards For All lottery grant.

They money will be used to buy proper junior kit instead of making do with hand me downs from the Marlborough senior side coaching, venue hire for winter training and transport.

The club coach is Chris Sloane who joined the Marlborough senior side about three years ago.

He was surprised to discover that although Marlborough is one of the oldest cricket clubs in the world, it had no junior side of youth coaching policy.

This season the Marlborough club formerly called Savernake Forest Cricket Club has its own junior section.

Mr Sloane from Upavon is a Level 2 ECB coach and Jiggy Patel from Marlborough who is a Level 1 ECB coach assists him.

He said he was amazed when he began to play at Marlborough after an army transfer to Upavon that the club had no active junior section.

"In this modern day and age if a club is to grow it must have a good base in the form of a good junior section.

"I hope that in three to four years time we will have some of today's juniors playing in the club's second side if not in the first team."

About 35 boys and girls have signed up for the new junior section and attend training sessions at the Savernake Forest ground on the edge of the town every Wednesday from 6.30pm.

Most of the children, who are aged between nine and 11, come from St Peter's Junior School in Marlborough and Preshute School at Manton with one or two from St John's School and Community College.

To encourage the children in cricket to start with Mr Sloane ran taster sessions at the primary schools.

The new junior section, said the coach, would have been hampered by a lack of finance and would benefit greatly from the lottery grant of £1,200. Mr Sloane said Kennet District Council officers had helped make the lottery application.

He said: "I have been very impressed by Kennet and the amount of help they have given. They have been very supportive."

The coach said getting the junior training grant was the first phase of creating better cricket at the Marlborough club.

He said giving the young players the right coaching was one thing, persuading them to stay with the club as they progressed was another.

"If we want to grow as a club then we will need to provide adequate facilities," said Mr Sloane.

He said currently Marlborough Cricket Club was disadvantaged by not having an artificial strip, practice nets or wicket covers.

Mr Sloane, the Marlborough cricket club's development officer, said: "My aim is to see the club get bigger and better.

"One thing we need is a good base of volunteers to make the club successful."

He said the he hoped adults in Marlborough would respond to the club's need as much as the children of the town who he said were wonderful.

He predicted: "Next season some of these kids we are coaching will be playing in Sunday games against the village sides.

"That will get them used to playing adult cricket but with the pressure of league games."