YOUNGSTERS in Astwood Bank Cricket Club's junior teams will be able to bat like pros thanks to a welcome donation.

One of the club's coaches, Andy Thomas, of Redditch, has worked for electricity distributor Central Networks, part of E.ON UK, for 32 years and it was in recognition of all his hard work that the gift was made.

"I helped start the junior section at the club with a few other fathers about four years ago because the kids really wanted to get involved when they watched us play cricket," said Andy.

"And we now have over 160 junior members.

"The club is completely funded by donations and I came up with the idea to raise money from a marathon curry evening, which meant I spent over two weeks cooking more than 30 litres of curry!

"It was a fantastic night and we had over 140 people turn up and, needless to say, there was no curry left at the end of it all."

He added: "As you can imagine, it's expensive to run a sports team of any type and the money we received from E.ON will come in really handy.

"The cash is going to help us to buy netting, which allows the kids to practice their batting skills in a safe environment and hopefully hit a few more sixes."

E.ON supports its employees by recognising and rewarding the voluntary activities they undertake in their own time.