Happisburgh Cricket Club are desperately trying to raise money to pay off their kit suppliers after a sponsorship deal fell through leaving them with a bill for £3,000.

The club ordered new trousers, shirts and jumpers for both of their teams on the back of an agreement which failed to come to fruition.

And though the kit providers have since generously agreed to accept half of the money they were owed, Happisburgh have still been left to find an outstanding £1,500 before the end of the season.

'We are a small club and it would have been the biggest sponsorship we'd ever had,' said captain Wayne Catchpole. 'We had new kit, paid for by the players, for our 50th anniversary a few years ago. But this was the first time someone had come to us and said 'I'll buy your kit for you'. Now we've had to go back to the players and ask them all to donate £100 each for their kit and also to ask those who can afford it to pay the year's match fees up front, which a few have.

'We paid off £500 at the start of the season and hope to pay another £500 after six weeks with the final instalment before the end of the season. But it means that all of our fund raising focus for this year will be on paying off this debt.'

As Happisburgh try to find ways to make up the shortfall young batsman Jamie 'Bubble' Carter might have given them some food for thought.

If he'd been sponsored at £100 a six their troubles would have been over on Saturday when he smashed 15 sixes on his way to 124 in just over ten overs as Happisburg made 326 all out against Drayton. The visitors made a brave effort to chase their target but were eventually all out for 229.

'He's a player who tends to get on with things,' said Catchpole. 'He hit the first ball he faced for four and the second for six and just kept going. My main concern when I was batting with him was not so much giving him the strike but stopping him trying to pull every ball into the potato field on the side with the short boundary.'