A BLAZE running into tens of thousands of pounds has robbed cricketers of their changing pavilion just a week before fixtures get under way.

Hyndburn Council is hoping to hire some portable changing units for the King George V playing fields, off Hollins Lane, Accrington.

In the meantime, arrangements are being made to switch next weekend's matches to other locations.

A council spokesman said: "We are in negotiation with our insurers to see if we can make temporary provision available by hiring changing units.

"But it's still early days to start making promises we may not be able to keep."

The wooden pavilion housing eight changing rooms, referees changing facilities, shower rooms and toilets was reduced to a charred shell by the Sunday night blaze.

A council team who inspected the blackened ruin estimate that 85 per cent of the building has been lost, including the boiler.

The spokesman said: "It is unlikely the building is recoverable."

Because of the scale of the facilities, the bill to replace the burned-down pavilion could be as high as £100,000.

The blaze also destroyed mowing machines, line markers, football nets and corner posts stored in the pavilion to serve the three cricket squares and five soccer pitches.

The pavilion has been there since 1932 and is believed to be in a conservation area.

High winds fanned the flames of the blaze and gardens backing onto the playing fields were showered with sparks .

In one garden the tops of two 20-foot conifers were scorched and a 40-foot stretch of fencing was damaged.

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