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Cumbria cricket club restored 20 months after Storm Desmond

Photo: ITV Border

Appleby and Eden Cricket Club is finally being restored, 20 months after it was deemed unsafe from the effects of Storm Desmond.

Credit: ITV Border

Flood water damaged both the pavilion and the pitch, and the cricketers have been playing 20 minutes away in Culgaith near Penrith ever since.

This is the first stage: the remediation of the ground, it'll be drained, levelled, so that it becomes totally flood resilient and then this place will be demolished hopefully in the not too distant future, and the brand new building raised up 1.8m, so this bottom section we will shutter for storage purposes but those shutters can be raised. Mistress Eden can come flying whenever she wants and we won't be bothered...hopefully."

– Ernest Brabbins, Vice Chairman, Appleby and Eden Cricket Club
Credit: ITV Border

This restoration is costing £800,000, funded by the English Cricket Board, Sport England and insurers.

It should survive all but a one in 100-year flood, such as Storm Desmond, and its taken volunteers 20 months of hard work to get this far.

It's been an absolute nightmare it really has. I don't think people realise just how much work has to go into something like this. And it's a massive development and trying to raise those sort of monies is not easy and I'm just looking forward to it all being finished and I can sit up on our balcony with a beer and just sit and watch the boys and girls playing. We've got to start again to rebuild our junior section and start producing our players again."

– Ernest Brabbins, Vice Chairman, Appleby and Eden Cricket Club
Credit: ITV Border

After almost two years of upheaval, this club still won't be home until next April, and even then, it's a club nestled in the bend of the river Eden, surrounded on three sides by the biggest threat its ever faced.

Credit: ITV Border