HOPES that Minor Counties Cricket will one day return to Dorchester Rec have been boosted by news of a £5,000 grant for pitch improvement work at the county town ground.

Dorchester Cricket Club have been promised the cash by the English Cricket Board to pay for remedial work to remove the top 35mm on the wicket and take it back down to it's original level.

Explained club chairman Bill Sibley: "Years of adding top dressing have built up into a raised platform and although our groundsman Frank Green has done a fantastic job of improving the standard of wickets there in recent years, there is only so much he can do.

"This work will help him produce even better wickets and the hope is that eventually we will see Minor Counties played in Dorchester again."

County cricket bosses dropped Dorchester as a venue for Minor Counties matches some years ago, even though it was their most popular venue for supporters, after complaints about the state of the wicket and off-pitch facilities.

"Now that side of things has been improved with the new pavilion and we have plans for new covers and an electronic scoreboard, we are hoping the pitch upgrade will

bring them back here because it would also be a lot cheaper than Bournemouth's Dean Park where they play their matches at present," said Sibley.

Dorchester hope the work to remove the top layer of thatch and fibre on the strip will be carried out in September by contractors using a laser-guided machine.

The machine also incorporates a cricket loam and fertiliser into the new surface which will then be re-seeded and the club have been assured the new wicket will be ready for use next season.

Keith Brewer, the ECB development officer for Dorset, said Dorchester were the only club in the county to benefit from lottery funding under the Board's scheme.

He said: "Dorchester Town Council have been very supportive and this will allow the club to move forward. I know that they have a number of other plans including a new scoreboard, nets and covers and I am hopeful that they can raise the necessary funding for these projects through the Community Club Development Fund and their own efforts.