Tag Archive for: After

Plea for help after vandal attack

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Plea for help after vandal attack: Volunteers from a city football club have appealed for help after vandals struck.

As reported by the Evening Express on Friday, officials at Kincorth AFC were left shocked after intruders damaged their pitch at Kincorth Field.

Vandals got onto the land and covered it in tyre tracks and burnt-out debris.

Some of the damage has been cleaned up but a scorch mark remains almost a week on.

Now the club’s chairman, Kris Harris, is urging anyone with the expertise to help restore the pitch to its former glory to get in touch.

Mr Harris said: “We need some help please. As you know the pitch was vandalised last week and there is a scorch mark on the edge of the box.

“Our co-manager Andrew Ewan is really not happy about it and we need to get someone professional to have a look.

“We would be grateful if you can point us in the right direction.

“What we’re hoping to do is cut this scorch mark out and replace it with a part from behind the goals, but again this is something we need advice on.”

The club is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and it is one of the most successful teams in the history of the Aberdeen Amateur Football Association.

Mr Harris added: “The culprits of this damage have little awareness of the wider impact this has on the community.”

Contact the club via facebook.com/kincorthafc/ if you can help.

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Games cancelled after pitch vandalism

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Games cancelled after pitch vandalism: Angry club officials have spoken of their frustration as a reckless driver has damaged two of their football pitches.

Southwell City Football Club has had to cancel their 7-a-side matches for the foreseeable future as their pitch has been damaged by a irresponsible driver, or drivers, racing and performing doughnuts on the club’s Church Street pitches.

Chairman of the club John Cunningham said: “This was a bit of a shock to say the least, we’re a community club with 300 local players, so why someone would do this is beyond us.

“It’s not just the players, it’s the families who are involved with us as well, most people in the town are involved with the club or know someone who is.”

As a result of the damage, the club is relying on their opponents having pitches available so that games can be played away from home if possible. If not, the games will have to be cancelled altogether.

Mr Cunningham said: “It’s too early to say how much it’s going to cost to repair the pitch, but it’s the inconvenience that’s the biggest problem for us.”

Nottinghamshire Police have confirmed that a vehicle was driven across two football pitches belonging to Southwell City F.C, damaging the surface, and the incident is believed to have happened at a time between late last night and early this morning.

If you have any information about the incident, contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 167 of October 18.

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Volunteers ‘Disheartened’ After Pitch Vandalism

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Volunteers ‘Disheartened’ After Pitch Vandalism: Volunteers at an amateur football club have been left “disheartened” after vandals rode across their pitch on off-road motorcycles.

After going to check the pitch at Breightmet Wanderers’ Dolan Park on Sunday morning, a member of the club spotted long tyre trails across the turf.

The pitches, off Newby Road, have been left open to the public since the team took ownership of them around two years ago but club secretary Andy Fearnley said they might have to be closed off following the “frustrating” vandalism.

He said: “It’s something I don’t want to do because it’s there for the community to use but it’s just a shame when something like this happens. We’re looking at closing it to the public if we have to.”

The pitch is used by nine teams, with age groups from under 8s to 17s playing games at Dolan Park. It is kept in shape by a team of volunteers from the club.

Mr Fearnley explained that, while the damage to the pitch was not extensive, it has caused concern.

He said: “On Saturday we had three sets of teams playing there, the under 8s, 9s and 10s, so if this had happened a day before then all of the games could’ve been cancelled.

” It’s not a major amount to fix depending on the weather but it’s all voluntary so when you turn up and see this it’s awful.”

He added: “There’s a difficult balance between providing a maintained pitch for our players and appreciating the need for a local community outside area but this makes me want to put barriers up.”

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Pitch Damaged After Concert

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Pitch Damaged After Concert: Pundit Michael Stewart has revealed his dismay at the condition of Hearts’ pitch after the club hosted an Edinburgh Festival concert a week ago today.

The damage appears to have been done when the stadium was the venue for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on August 3. It saw a crowd of more than 15,000 arrive in Gorgie to witness the official opening of the world renowned arts festival.

Hearts laid the state-of-the-art hybrid pitch at a cost of £1m in March and Stewart took to Twitter to register his displeasure at it’s apparent poor health.

He said: “What a crying shame the Tynecastle park looks like this.

“Have spoken with the groundsmen and thankfully they seem to be comfortable that the park will recover and quickly. Fingers crossed.

“£1million spent last year on this park and it was tremendous. The groundsmen deserved huge credit and now it looks destroyed before the league campaign has even started here.”

Hearts released a statement on Tuesday after pictures emerged on social media showing the apparent extent of damage done to the pitch by the Festival event.

The statement said: “Prior to agreeing to host the concert, we took advice from a number of expert sources, including the companies involved in laying the pitch.

“Our pitch consultants, STRI Group, were contracted to advise and manage the pitch protection process on our behalf, working throughout with our own groundstaff.

“We have always known that the event would have an impact on the aesthetics of the pitch, however, there would be no impact on its playability.

“In short, there have been no unforeseen issues relating to the pitch and the first team will train on it, as usual, on Friday.”

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Anger After Mower Theft

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Anger After Mower Theft: Steve Kenny, chairman of Whalley Junior Football Club, is angry after thieves broke the lock of a container and stole a Craftsman mower worth £2k on September 18.

The club have two large pitches, and three smaller-sided pitches to cater for matches for their age-groups from

Mr Kenny said: “It is gutting and frustrating as we put a lot of effort into fundraising events a few years ago.

“We have to mow our fields as part of the agreement with the parish council to use the facility.

“Our groundsman Dave Leeming rang me to tell me about it and you could tell how gutted he was in his voice when he told us.

“We have a lot of volunteers and we are doing it for the community and then you get people doing this.

“It is a huge area to cut and we have paid to get a new yellow deck on the side of it to cut the grass which makes it distinctive.

“We have been asking people locally if they have any CCTV of vehicles in the area to see if we can identify who stole it.

“It is a real shame because it is for the community as other organisations and families use the pitches too. If we don’t maintain it, then it will be overgrown.”

Steve has been amazed by the response of the community since the news broke.

He said: “One of our neighbours has contacted us to say that we can borrow their sit-on mower if we needed it.

“We have also set up a Crowdfunding page to try to raise money for a new one.

“So far we have managed to get £920 and we have been taken aback by the support in such a short space of time.

“We are hoping to get our target of £2k to get another mower.”

Groundsman Dave Leeming said: “I turned up and the container was open.

“I rang up to see if anyone had left it like that and then I saw the mower was missing.

“It was heartbreaking when I saw the lock has been forced open.

“I have been going down two or three times a week and put a lot of time into getting the pitches looking good and you just cannot do your job.”

Sgt Stuart Banks, from the Neighbourhood team in Ribble Valley, said: “This crime is going to have a massive effect on a football club and they are suffering a significant loss to mow their pitches.

“We are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area to report it to us.

“Another vehicle would have been needed to take it away from there so we need the public to help by calling 101 and using the crime reference number of 20180918-0781.”

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