A fence separates the pitches for the first time in 120 years

Pickering Town's hopes of promotion from Koolsport NCEL Division One look brighter after the construction of a fence between Mill Lane's football and cricket pitches.

The fence can be removed during the cricket season and re-installed when football gets under way again.

Pickering's club development manager Anthony Handley told BBC Radio York: "It's something we desperately needed for the ground-grading inspection."

That inspection took place at the Winterton game on 20 September.

That's our major aim, get the ground right and the rest of it will follow Anthony Handley

The fence is the most eye-catching improvement at Mill Lane but Handley says there are many others thanks to sponsorship, lottery fund and Football Foundation grants.

"We've got brand new goalposts, dug-outs, technical areas with a new all weather playing surface in there, and we've spent an awful lot of money on the drainage of the pitch."

The club now await the inspector's verdict on the facilities, along with news of whether the two separate 100-seat covered stands would qualify the club for promotion, when the rules demand 150 seats within one stand.

All the Pikes will need then is to win promotion, and a six-game unbeaten start to the season bodes well.

Handley added: "That's our major aim, get the ground right and the rest of it will follow."