WORCESTERSHIRE County Cricket Club still has the advantage of a £40,000 interest-free loan from its Supporters Association.

This was provided last year to acquire the lease of the Severn Bridge Service Station and gives additional parking space for members on match days as well as throughout the year.

The Supporters Association has also aided the County Club in various other ways financially in the past year.

At the supporters' annual meeting of members at New Road it was reported that £2,000 was donated towards the floral displays round the ground provided by Webb's Garden Centre last year. A further £1000 donation is also agreed for this summer's displays.

The Association's Player of the Year awards, going for well over 20 years, amounted to £500. The Supporters also donated £1000 to Worcestershire Cricket Board for youth cricket in the county.

The 50-50 competition raised £3,550 for the Supporters ground improvement fund, while the supporters shop made a profit of £2,860.

"This was down on previous years due to poor weather, reduced attendance's and competition from the Club's own shop, which suffered a loss in 2000," reported Supporters chairman Ken Mills.

At the request of director of cricket Tom Moody, the Association are providing £10,000 to enable two promising young players, Chris Liptrot and Kabir Ali, to spend the winter in Australia where they are to be coached at Perth Cricket Academy.

Moody has assured the Supporters committee this should prove most beneficial to both players.

The treasurer's report revealed investments amounting to £73,095, interest from which was £3,580. There was a surplus for the year ending December 31 last year of £5,632.

The 50th anniversary of the Association, celebrated with a dinner in June, was much appreciated by County committee members, players, ground staff and past and present Supporters committee. The main celebration, however, was a lunch attended by 215 Association members.

In recognising the Supporters' aid, the club made founder member president Betty Godfrey and secretary Pat Mills vice-presidents of the County.

The report stated: "We continued to run coach trips to away matches in 2000 but support for Benson & Hedges games was disappointing and the coach for the floodlit match versus Sussex at Hove was cancelled.

"Support generally for away floodlit matches has been poor and losses have been incurred on every trip so far."

In reply to a member at the meeting the chairman said no decision had yet been made on whether or not the County would play matches at Kidderminster next season. A decision was unlikely to be made until the new fixture list was forthcoming.

The officers were re-elected as follows: president; Betty Godfrey; chairman, Ken Mills; treasurer Bob Brookes; secretary, Pat Mills.

Committee members returning by rota, Maggie Palmer and Bob Scott, were re-elected, and Kim Bradley was elected to fill a committee vacancy.