Clubs welcome Latics offer

SEATS YOU, SIR: Workman Sean Garrett with some of the seats from the Broadway Stand.

CRICKET clubs in the area have been bowled over by the generosity of Oldham Athletic.

The Boundary Park outfit have donated seats from the soon-to-be-demolished Broadway Stand to Delph, Oldham, Royton and Saddleworth.

Athletic chief executive Alan Hardy said: “We were initially contacted by Delph to see if they could have some seats from the Broadway Stand paddock.

“Since then word has got around and a number of other clubs have been in touch.

“We are happy to help local sporting organisations. The seats may as well go to them and be used, otherwise they would be scrapped.”

The four cricket clubs have each taken between 100 and 300 seats, which will be used to help improve the facilities.

Delph committee member Les Harrison admitted that the seating at their Huddersfield Road ground has been in need of repair and replacement for a number of years.

He said: “We approached Yorkshire when they were redeveloping a stand at Headingley but they were unable to let us have any.

“It has been a case of biding our time and, when we learned Oldham Athletic were demolishing a stand, we got in touch.

“Our cricket president Peter Gledhill and I went to Boundary Park and were grateful when the club said they were able to accommodate us.”

Delph are hoping half of the 300 seats they acquired from Athletic can be recycled for use.

Harrison added: “Since we joined the Huddersfield League in 1999 we have had an on-going programme to upgrade our ground.

“The new seating is one part of the improvements and the next project is to install an electronic scoreboard, which will hopefully be in place by the end of this year.”