New Farnley Cricket Club was targeted late on Monday night. Neighbours raised the alarm after noticing the clubhouse was on fire at midnight. Chairman John Baldwin said: “It’s not a write-off but it’s not far off to be honest. The roof is very badly damaged. “It looks like we’ll end up putting a new roof on, new ceilings and then it’s carpets and furnishings.” West Yorkshire Police said they were called to the cricket club at 11:10am and are investigating the incident, which is being treated as arson. Mr Baldwin says two males have been captured on the club’s CCTV starting the fire. He added: “My message to them is why do such a mindless act? We have loads of junior cricket here. “Only yesterday we had an over 50s game and a junior game at night time. There were loads of spectators here. Why are they trying to stop that? We don’t understand it at all.” New Farnley, which plays in the Bradford Cricket League, still has a month of fixtures left including friendlies. The club should still be able to fulfil those but it won’t be able to open the bar or operate the live scoring system for league matches. Mr Baldwin said the closure of the bar will have an impact on revenue at the club but they hope to set up a temporary bar outside. He said: “That’s where you make your money in the cricket season. We’ve been very busy. It will have an impact on us. We haven’t had time to assess that impact.” A fair amount of stock was also destroyed in the fire. Mr Baldwin said: “It’s a blow but we’ll bounce back. “We’re lucky that we have got a very resilient community. We’ve had loads of offers of support already.” The local community has rallied to the club’s support with volunteers helping in the clear up and offering their support. Mr Baldwin said: “The local community is definitely helping us. I don’t think that’s a problem that we’ll have. It’ll bring us all together. “I’ve had hundreds of messages from people asking what they can do to help.” He believes it could be up to three months before the clubhouse is likely to open again. A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “Officers are investigating the incident which is being treated as arson and any witnesses are asked to call police on 101 quoting crime reference 13200439115.”
