A BID for a Lottery grant to upgrade the East Lancashire Club is to be launched on the back of record profits.

Two legacies totalling £46,000 have left the Blackburn club in the "healthiest position in living memory".

Plans for the redevlopment will be unveiled at Monday night's annual general meeting starting at 8pm.

They include a new clubhouse at the Crosshill Road site as well as a gymnasium, car park, diabled access improvements and upgraded changing facilities at the main Alexandra Meadows ground.

The legacies, £37,000 from Bill Westall and £9,000 from the sale of Derek Preston's house, mean the club are now in credit.

And an operating profit of more than £4,000 was also achieved with the help of a furnishings loan from Thwaites Brewery and improved bar profits.

The club's recent mounting debts have now been wiped out four years ahead of schedule.

A £40,000 donation from a mystery benefactor - believed to be Jack Walker - a VAT refund and £20,000 from the sale of land to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for the new swimming pool have also helped in recent years.

Assistant treasurer Ian Haworth said: "It is the best position the club has been in in living memory."

Copies of the accounts are available for members behind the bar.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.