CRAVEN Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Gargrave will receive a massive boost to its facilities after being awarded £45,000.

The money, from Sport England, will be used to update facilities and help encourage up and coming young tennis players into the sport.

The community sports project is one of 11 across Yorkshire to receive a share of £685,490 designed to help breathe new life into tired facilities.

The National Lottery funding will help to upgrade courts, club houses and changing rooms across the region and help get more people active.

Sport England’s Inspired Facilities fund will help more than 90 community sport projects across England totalling over £9.9 million.

Around 10 per cent of clubs who have received funding already from the fund said that without the money, they would have been forced to close, and half said they would have lost members.

Sport England property director, Charles Johnston, said: “The Inspired Facilities fund is a helping hand to thousands of community sports projects across the country. No club is immune to wear and tear, and this fund recognises the tremendous work they do in helping local people keep active. I am delighted that thanks to the National Lottery we have been able to help so many clubs in Yorkshire.”

Today’s announcement marks the last tranche of funding for the Inspired Facilities programme, which will shortly be replaced with a new programme called the Community Asset Fund. The new fund will continue to support local sports projects by helping communities take ownership of local assets from local authorities or elsewhere.