Cockermouth captain Gareth White was delighted with how the club’s PCA Masters event went.

England's Cumbrian all-rounder Ben Stokes was the star attraction last Thursday as he returned to his old club in west Cumbria.

Stokes, 26, hosted a match between Cockermouth’s first-team and the PCA England Masters at the Sandair club, with the event providing a major boost to the club which was badly hit by Storm Desmond in 2015.

Cockermouth captain White said he felt the event had "reached far beyond cricket" and was expecting it to have raised in the region of £20,000, although the club are waiting to find out the exact total.

"We were really pleased," he added. "It was a huge success and the feedback we've had so far through emails, word-of-mouth and speaking to people has been absolutely tremendous, everyone is loving it.

"We are hoping it's going to be somewhere in the region of £20,000 which would exceed our expectations. We would have been happy if we had raised £10-15,000 in truth. But it's a tricky one to predict.

"The beautiful day helped massively because you weren't ducking inside for shelter.

"It was great to see Ben back and he got a great reception. He got a little bit overawed at one point with so many people wanting his autograph but he had a little bit of time in the evening to relax and it was good to catch-up with him.

"I think it reached far beyond cricket. I've had emails from people who had never been to a cricket match before but [they] thought it was absolutely brilliant and said they were definitely going to come down again."

West Cumbria seemed to make a big impression on England's batting coach Mark Ramprakash, who took to his Twitter account to describe Sandair as "amazing" and praised the "lovely people" who welcomed him and his team-mates.

White led the Cockermouth side that beat their star-littered opposition by five wickets and said it was surreal to have a group of international names on their field.

"Our plan was to restrict them as best as we could and then have a go," he said.

"It worked pretty well and it's the only way you can play when you're up against guys who are that good. Alex Grainger batted brilliantly to get us over the line so I was absolutely delighted."