A GENEROUS benefactor is offering to cover the cost of damage to Monmouth Cricket Club's vandalised pitch covers.

Kind-hearted Dr James Hull decided to step forward after reading the story in the Beacon (Page One, 6th May).

The life-long cricket lover and former player, was moved to offer £5,500 to Monmouth Cricket Club (CC) having read about the vandalism to the pitch covers on Friday 1st May.

He has run his own charity cricket team, The Drillers, for over twenty years, culminating with his sponsorship of The Taverners Founders Day Match at Lords.

He explained: "My car collection suffered a vandal attack in Newport some years ago and we were devastated by this inexplicable behaviour. I am sure Monmouth Cricket Club will sadly feel the same way."

A dentist by trade, Dr Hull made national headlines last year when his car collection of 543 classic cars, ranging from multi-million pound Jaguars and Bentleys to Morris Minors and including Lord Mountbatten's Mini Traveller, Winston Churchill's Austin and Bentley owned by Sir Elton John went up for auction.

However, his love of cricket has also made him well-known through the donations his family and The Drillers have raised and donated to the Lords Taverners.

Dr Hull said: "One of my requests for the money donated was that it should hopefully find its way back to Wales, hence there are many Lords Taverners Mini Buses with our name currently residing in Wales and without doubt helping dis-advantaged children.

I brought The Drillers (named as the team comprised of many dentists and doctors) to play a charity match at The Garway Moon Inn, some four seasons ago, and the team included Herchel Gibbs, then the worlds highest ranked batsman.

The team also included many members of the Welsh rugby team and Glamorgan CC.

Through his contacts, he has also been in touch with their insurers, Thomas Carol who also sponsor the league, and has secured a promise the claim would be dealt with sympathetically.

Members of Monmouth CC were 'gobsmacked' to hear through the Beacon of the offer made. Club member, Jonathan Davies said: "As you can imagine we were absolutely distraught when we saw the covers in such a state. We've become infamous in our league with getting our games on when others are off, mainly due to our covers and secondly due to the micro climate that is Monmouth!

The covers have also ensured that our junior section are able to play more often than not and maximise the 4 months of the year that we have the ground. We are also one of the home venues to the Welsh Disability Cricket Association and hopefully will be selected as one of the venues for the Welsh Blind team this year.

Speaking about the donation, he added: "In this current climate to have this opportunity is huge. It has made an unbearable situation seem manageable and without putting too fine a point on it has restored our clubs faith," he added.