CHARD Cricket Club has received a donation of young trees from a Somerset garden centre.

Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre hosted a sapling giveaway for worthy causes on a first come first served basis and has presented the trees to the club for its pitch regeneration.

Peter Singleton, committee member at the Dening Field club, said: “Our players’ pitch is currently surrounded on three sides with hedging but there are lots of gaps we would like to fill, so the kind donation of saplings from the garden centre will come in extremely useful.”

Chard Cricket Club is a volunteer club, maintaining its own ground and facilities, and has a youth section of more than 90 young players. Its four senior teams have played on Dening Field for more than 150 years.

Monkton Elm, based near Taunton, runs the sapling giveaway scheme annually.

Schools, charities and notfor-profit organisations are invited to receive groups of between 50 and 100 small indigenous British varieties.

Store manager Andrew Pitman said: “Our sapling giveaway has once again been hugely successful and we had lots of people come forward for the free trees.

“It’s extremely interesting to read all about the different gardening projects going on and we’re delighted to have helped Chard Cricket Club with its playing field.”