HARD-WORKING construction students from York College put their skills to the test and built a village a cricket pavilion.

Students completed a community project at Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club in Sutton on Derwent, building a much-needed cricket pavilion and renovating other areas of the ground.

Building work took two years to complete, with approximately 40 students working collectively on different parts of the project.

Club chairman John Stroughair said: “We have more and more teams playing at Woodhouse Grange and needed better facilities for our second ground. With York College construction students providing much of the labour to supplement club volunteers efforts, and with generous materials donations from others, we have gone from having a very basic concrete slab shelter (like something you might find on a farm), to having a proper clubhouse/pavilion which we may be able to develop further in the future. The new facilities provide a practical focal point and gives our development and junior teams a real sense of pride and identity when they play here.

“It has been a pleasure to see the students working on the different areas of the construction – they enabled the job to be expedited and have seen it through to completion.

“The help from York College has been invaluable.”

Bricklaying tutor Mike Burdett said: “Having a real life project to work on was hugely beneficial to staff and students, and the Club were very accommodating allowing the project to span two academic years. The community project gave us the opportunity to deliver a very worthwhile teaching and learning experience and we are delighted the Club can now operate more effectively due to the new facilities.”