Tag Archive for: Football

Vandals Damage Football Pitch

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Vandals Damage Football Pitch: Junior footballers from Spalding were left “devastated and disheartened” after vandals wrecked their pitch and equipment on Friday night.

Players and officials from Spalding United Youth Football Club arrived for their games in West Pinchbeck, only to find that a pitch had been vandalised and a container storing equipment used by the club had been broken into.

A pitch marker and rope used by the club were stolen and dumped in a ditch full of water, but not before the marker had been used to leave graffiti on the pitch itself and on Leaves Lake Drove where the playing field is located.

The vandals struck sometime between Thursday night, when Spalding United’s junior players had their last training session, and about 9am on Saturday morning.

Club secretary Chiara Lyon said: “My colleague on our committee received a call early on Saturday morning with a message that the pitch we play on in West Pinchbeck had been vandalised and the equipment in which we store all our equipment had been stolen.

“I drove down to Leaves Lake Drove at 9am on Saturday, only to find that some nice pictures had been drawn on the pitch and the container had been broken into.

“A pitch marker used to paint the lines on the pitches had been taken out of the container and used on the pitch before it was thrown into a dyke.

“There was paint all over the road and some “Respect” barriers to keep spectators off the pitch had been thrown into the dyke as well.

“I was devastated as some of the children had travelled from quite a distance away and we had to explain to them that their game go ahead as the police wanted to have a look at what had happened.”

Among the youngsters affected were a team from Newmarket, who had made a 127-mile round trip to play against one of the Spalding United junior teams.

Chiara said: “We had a team training session at Leaves Lake Drove on Thursday evening, but we don’t use the pitch on Fridays.

“There were two games scheduled on Saturday which had to be called off but once the police had finished, myself and some of the other committee members spent several hours cleaning the pitch.

“It wasn’t the nicest of feelings and it wasn’t the call I expected on Saturday morning when I was supposed to have been taking my youngster to a match.

“We’ve managed to get the pitch playable again, after it took us six hours to tidy things up.

“But it was very disheartening to see what happened because it affects the children.”

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Boy Racers Churn Up Football Pitches

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Boy Racers Churn Up Football Pitches: Boy racers performing ‘donuts’ have churned up a team’s football pitch in Market Harborough.

Two cars have damaged a large section of the turf at the Symington’s Recreation Ground by performing stunts and driving about at speed on Sunday night.

Officials at Borough Alliance Football Club, who run 17 teams for up to 400 players, officials, volunteers and parents at the site, have branded the actions as ‘mindless vandalism’.

Mick Draper, club chairman and manager of the under-10 team, said he was angry at the drivers.

He said: “These boy racers have come onto the pitch on Sunday night at about 8pm after our teams played at home.

“These idiots have spent five or 10 minutes trashing our pitches doing donuts.

“They have caused damage to three pitches.

“You can’t print what I think about these idiots. It is mindless vandalism.”

Local people have rallied round to get a group of volunteers together to work on the pitches so they are playable on at the weekend.

The club have also received support from Harborough Hire Centre and Jewsons, who are providing equipment and materials to assist them.

The affected areas will be re-seeded.

Mr Draper said: “We will get all hands on deck and sort this. There is no way we will not be ready for the games on Sunday.

“Our under-15s are going for the league, our under-11s are in a quarter-final and the under-nines are in a semi-final.

“They are all playing at home and all games will go ahead as planned. We will not let these vandals win. “

Harborough District Council have said they intend to install extra bollards to prevent vehicles being able to access the playing surfaces.

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch

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Vandals Set Fire To Football Pitch: A football pitch in Drimnagh has been damaged in a suspected arson attack.

The pitch on Benmadigan Road is used by local club St John Bosco.

It is believed plastic fencing that was left at the pitch was set on fire.

Pictures shared on social media by Cllr Daithi Doolan show a part of the pitch scorched this morning.

Cllr Doolan condemned those who caused the damage.

He said: “This vandalism damages the whole community. If you are involved please. Stop and think. If you see it. Report it.”

Cllr Doolan has reported the damage to Dublin City Council, who have assured him they will be cleaning it up as soon as possible.

St John Bosco have been established in the local community for over 60 years.

The successful club operates teams for boys and girls at all underage levels.

Gardai confirmed investigations into the incident are ongoing.

A garda spokesperson said: “Gardai were called to an incident of a report of a fire at Brickfield Park, Drimnagh on 9 February, 2019 – there was damage to a green area with fire burnt out.”

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Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution

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Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution: Derby County Football Club is at the forefront of the biggest change in sport surfaces in over 20 years.

The club has worked with Talbot Sports Turf on installing revolutionary POWERgrass on an academy pitch at its Moor Farm Training Centre.

Derby At Forefront Of Football Pitch Revolution

Invented in Italy, POWERgrass has increased traction, stability and softness and is more robust than any other hybrid sports carpet.

Darren Wassall, Derby County’s academy director, said: “The POWERgrass hybrid carpet at our Moor Farm academy has exceeded all expectations with regards to wear, surface softness, reliability and playability.”

Sean Goodwin, Director of Talbot Sports Turf, which has exclusive rights to install POWERgrass as a turf in the UK, said: “We have decades of experience and we believe this is the best hybrid carpet system available on the market and is the biggest change in the industry in two decades.

“We are convinced it will become the turn-to surface for football clubs across the UK and Europe.”

He added: “We met with the inventor, Dr Niko Sarris, and have examined POWERgrass very closely. We believe he was the only individual who considered how the grass plant would grow within the hybrid system because his background is agronomy.”

POWERgrass has a bespoke root zone as part of a system, which improves the growing environment and, at the same time, has more synthetic fibre filaments per square metre than any other product.  This, together with the patented backing to the carpet, makes it unique.

Sean added: “One of the issues with hybrid carpets is the ability to be renovated at end of the season.

“If a hybrid carpet does not have very good tuft-lock, synthetic fibres will be removed when old grass is taken out. We are delighted to say that the tuft-lock of POWERgrass is the highest available on the world market.

“It is also the only carpet with tri-coloured fibres which ensures it marries into the grass sward as well as possible.”

Talbot won a prestigious BALI National Landscape Award for the installation of a POWERgrass pitch which has been hailed as ‘our Wembley’ by grassroots footballers in Regent’s Park, London.

The pitch, which is the first of its type at an outdoor public sports facility in the UK, was initially a Royal Parks’ pilot but has been a huge success because of its quality and robustness.

Mark Rowe, assistant park manager, said: “POWERgrass is now in its second season and through last winter and up to now this winter, we have seen no games called off due to adverse weather conditions apart from when the playing surface was covered in deep snow.”

POWERgrass has enabled thousands more people to enjoy sports in Regent’s Park and Sean believes that it has set the benchmark for other public facilities across the country.

He said: “POWERgrass is the best surface available and offers a cost-saving. It will change the face of sports surfaces for sports clubs from The Premier League to the local park.”

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Vandals Ruin Village Football Pitch

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Vandals Ruin Village Football Pitch: A village football boss has condemned “mindless” vandals who ruined their pitch by driving across it and churning up the turf.

Cartmel AFC’s ground was targeted by someone driving across the wet surface performing “doughnuts and wheelies” and scarring the sodden ground on Boxing Day.

Club chairman Steve Chambers said it was ‘out of the blue’ for someone in the community to have done such a thing.

“It’s simply mindless vandalism,” he said. “We are such a supportive community and for this to have happened is very unexpected.”

Police have launched an investigation and the football club has gathered CCTV footage that may show who was in the area at the time.

Mr Chambers is hopeful that the CCTV evidence will help trace those responsible for the criminal damage.

“With luck the footage will give us something and the culprits will be brought to justice,” he said.

The team hope that they will still be able to play on Saturday (January 5) despite how deep the marks are on the field.

First team manager Andrew Kendall said: “A lot of volunteers spend a lot of time on the pitch and so it’s very disappointing and upsetting for the club for this to happen.”

Anyone with information should contact the police on 101 quoting log number 103 of December 27 or call CrimeStoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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