WE have lost everything we need to run as a club says groundsman after a ‘devastating’ seven hour fire that destroyed the Melksham Cricket Club pavilion.

Fire crews were called to the scene, behind Melksham House in Market Place, at 2.13pm on Sunday (June 5) when witnesses, who were playing at the bowls club, spotted the blaze.

The raging inferno stood for several hours spouting flames as high as twenty feet into the air with the smoke billowing high over Melksham’s skyline.

Firefighters remained at the scene until 9.45pm with crews from Melksham, Trowbridge, Chippenham and Corsham attending throughout the day.

Groundsman Tim Carpenter said: “We still had a cricket match on Monday anyway and went ahead with it regardless. We are not going to let something like this stop us.

“The effect that it is going to have is massive and everything we need to function as a club was in the pavilion and it has all been lost.

"We lost the microwave, stumps, bats, kits, helmets really everything you need to act as a club.

“It is not like we can take a donation of helmets we need to buy them all again brand new. It is going to cost us thousands to replace everything that we have lost.

“The response we have had from the community has been amazing and we are grateful for everything the town is doing.

“I was actually umpiring another game when the phone just started to go mental with everyone calling me telling about the blaze."

Since the fire the cricket club has received donations of help including youth kits from Trowbridge Cricket Club, Leekes department store gave several hose pipes and councillor Jon Hubbard offered £500 for any youth equipment.

The cause of the fire is as of yet unknown but crews believe it to have started on the right-hand side of the building.

District commander for Devizes, Calne and Melksham, Jack Nicholson, who was present at the fire, said: “It is an unknown cause at the minute as there was not really anyone in the area to give use any information.

“We struggled to put it out as the bitumen roofing material made it very difficult. Bitumen is a flammable semi-solid form of petroleum and when it gets hot it turns into molten droplets.

"We were on the scene for a few hours and that is what caused the large black plume. We had to get it contained but the crews managed to save the building to the side which contained a lot of the equipment.”

For those wishing to donate to the cricket club contact andyfootner@blueyonder.co.uk.