[FONT=Verdana]Work is underway to demolish an historic cricket pavilion in Worcester, England where WG Grace once played.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT]
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Campaigners trying to save it from housing developers have admitted the 140-year-old building at the Cinderella ground is now doomed.

Developers started moving roof tiles on Monday despite birds nesting in the building, giving it a limited reprieve.

Campaigners said they needed a miracle to save the pavilion, the 19th Century home of the county's cricket club.

The pavilion was to have been knocked down on 29 June for SJS Property Management but a family of nesting sparrows halted the plan.

Worcester City Council said the birds were covered by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act of which protects all nesting birds.

However, over the weekend the birds were disturbed and their nests removed by vandals which enabled the bulldozers to return to the site.

"I'm absolutely pig sick, I'm devastated," said Councillor David Clarke, who has fought to save the building.

"The developer's agents are just intent on demolishing it."

He added: "We'll never give up the fight but we need a miracle now to save it."
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