A family-run business threatened with closure by a ban on the chemical they use to make cricket bats has been granted a temporary reprieve.

Anglian Willow Services, in Kings Street, Ongar, is one of just five companies in England which treats and fumigates the wood used to make the world's supply of bats, but it faces an uncertain future as its use of insecticide methyl bromide will become illegal within weeks.

The bats themselves are assembled in India, and the authorities there will not allow any unfumigated wood to enter the country.

However after frantic backroom negotiations between governments, India has now agreed to allow the wood to be treated on arrival on its own soil – although only for the next three months.

In the meantime, Anglian Willow Services faces a frantic scramble to try and find alternative methods of fumigating the wood before time runs out.

Owner Geoff Watling said: “It's good we've got a reprieve which gives us some financial breathing space, but at the moment we're really in limbo.

“We're testing whether treating the wood using heat will work, although I'm not very confident it will. However I'd love to be proved wrong.

“I've poured tens of thousands of my own money into this company and it's just a case of crossing our fingers and hoping. We're going to find out the results of the heat treatment tests in two to three weeks.

“There is another chemical that's being tested at the moment, but it could take as long as a year before it's approved by the Government, and even then we need it to be approved by India too.

“Though whatever alternative we use it will cost about ten times more than currently.”

The chemical has been banned under an international agreement - which is being introduced over the next few years around the world - following concerns surrounding its effect on the earth's o-zone layer.