A SPORTS club chairman is overjoyed at the generosity shown by the community as they close in on smashing yet another fundraising target.

Hawcoat Park Sports Club originally aimed to raise £10,000 via Via Crowdfunder before December 13, but after raising £7,000 in it's first 24 hours - the club soon raised the goalpost.

Now aiming for £30,000, the club are less than a grand away from their goal.

The club needs to hit the goal to receive a matched grant from Sport England, but they still hope that they can take the funding further.

Chair of the 95-year-old club, Paul Burns said: "There will be an opportunity for us to increase the target once we do hit the £30,000.

"We still have until December 13 until it closes, you can't close it early and we still have 22 days left."

It is hoped that the fundraiser will hit the target within the next day, which will then give the board members the opportunity to discuss the next steps for the club.

Mr Burns said: "We are keen to carry on.

"It has been absolutely brilliant - there is no doubt about that.

"We are biased at the club but we always thought that there was loads of support in the community for us, but this has just proven our point.

"We're interested in keeping the club open, but it's more than that. There are other organisations who use us - the Keswick to Barrow alone sees thousands of people come up and a lot of the charities get a lot of money from that.

"It makes some people think, well if that disappears then we might disappear too.

"It has been excellent, and we thought we'd get the money but we never thought we'd get it this quick. It's only been three weeks this Sunday since we opened the fundraiser.

"We are very happy with the amount of money raised, we were financially struggling but it has made all the difference."