ALTON’S hopes of continuing to offer cricket to all members of the community have been boosted with a lottery ‘win’ of £5,000.

The club have been awarded the cash – from National Lottery funding – by Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund.

It should be used to ‘maintain the club’s infrastructure during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic’.

The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses on March 23 left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.

In response, on March 31, Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through the pandemic.

Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations because of the impact of coronavirus.

Alton say the grant will allow the club to maintain the high-quality nets and playing surfaces at Jubilee Cricket Ground and cover the unavoidable costs that clubs faced at a time when the sport was not being played.

Richard Myers, Alton’s cricket director, said: “This is really important to our club.

“This support will ensure Alton can continue to provide cricketing opportunities in the local area for players of all ages and abilities, and will enable us to restart our popular primary schools programme in the local area once schools are fully reopened.”

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future.

“The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players, is part of a multi-million-pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Alton to help it through these extremely challenging times.”