POTENTIAL cricket stars of the future at The Vyne School are set to benefit from a state-of-the-art bowling machine - thanks to a lottery grant.

A £2,500 Awards for All grant from the National Lottery has enabled the secondary school to purchase the specialist sports equipment.

Children throughout the school will now have their cricketing skills honed by the testing deliveries the machine throws down.

Although speeds delivered by the BOLA machine can top 99mph - making helmets a must - it will operate at between 40 and 45mph for the budding cricketers.

Kevin Light, PE teacher and an all-rounder with Fareham in Hampshire division one, said: "It really is an unbelievable machine and, as a state school, we are incredibly fortunate to have one, because very few do.

"The facility will mean we can help the cricket development of our kids considerably. They have taken to it well at around the 40 mph mark and it will be a great help to our teams and training before the season begins."

The machine caps a good cricketing year for the school. They had an artificial bowling strip installed and the under-13 side won the Basingstoke league and cup.

They are still looking for sponsorship. For more details, contact Kevin Light on 01256 473003.