A cricket club is hoping to retrieve some of the irreplaceable trophies that burglars stole from its prize cabinet.

Police have told Idle Cricket Club that at least seven of the stolen trophies have been recovered and are ready to be reclaimed.

On Thursday, promising teenage rugby league player Dean O’Toole admitted breaking into the club in Cavendish Road, Idle, stealing trophies and £1,500 in cash. The 18-year-old was one of a group of burglars who forced their way into the club and smashed their way into the trophy cabinet.

O’Toole, of Leafield Crescent, Eccleshill, was warned by magistrates he could now face a custodial sentence and his case was adjourned until January 19 for a probation report. The burglars had forced a double padlocked safe and rifled the trophy cabinet and O’Toole, who played scrum-half for Huddersfield Giants under-18s team, was arrested and interviewed on Christmas Eve after a police sergeant recognised him from CCTV stills of the break-in.

Speaking about the burglary, club steward David English said news that some of the trophies had been found was a relief after fears they could have been sold for scrap metal.

He said: “Some of those trophies were very old, the club’s been here since 1906. They would have been irreplaceable.”

The burglary was the third in 12 months, which has cost the club a fortune in putting bars up at the windows and fitting CCTV.

“It’s money we don’t really have but we’ve had no choice but to spend it. We are struggling anyway, the insurance has gone up. It’ll get to the stage when they won’t insure us and then we’ll have to shut,” said Mr English.

In March, Mr English said he was inside the club when would-be burglars tried to tear down steel grids put up at the games room window.

He said: “They were definitely trying to get in but when they saw me through the window they gave up and took off.”

During the break-in when the trophies were stolen, a triple-glazed window was smashed, covering the club in fragments of glass, and coins discarded by the burglars from the safe were scattered across the floor.

“It was a hideous mess,” said Mr English.

“The fact O’Toole is a sportsman, doing this to a sports club makes what he did stick in the throat even more but people like that will do what they have to do to get what they want without regard for anyone else.”