Pitch Vandalised With Golf Clubs: A football club has hit out after vandals tore up their pitch with golf clubs only a week before their first pre-season friendly.
Billinghay Athletic Football Club, which competes in Division One of the Boston and District Saturday Football League, have criticised the actions of the vandals, which have left them with an uphill struggle to get the pitch ready in time.
Vandals armed with golf clubs made 20 holes in the pitch, while dog poo has also been found on the grass, in what the club secretary describes as a “kick in the teeth”.
Nathan Wood, who has also played for the club since he was a youth player, said it was not the first time they’ve had to deal with dog poo, but golf-related vandalism is a first.
“We’ve had issues for a long time with dog poo, but not with the golf,” he said. “We’ve not seen anybody do it, but we do find golf balls on the pitch.”
He added the vandalism, which is believed to have taken place on Saturday, July 6, was all the more frustrating after the club made great efforts to improve the quality of the pitch.
“Since we’ve taken over the club we’ve invested a lot of money,” he said. “We’ve bought a new lawnmower. There’s me and another guy taking two or three hours of our day, every couple of days to cut it.
“The grass they’ve chopped won’t grow back in time.”
Mr Wood added that although it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, he felt the person who did was being “very irresponsible”.
“It’s nothing major, we are not saying it’s the end of the world,” he said. “The person who’s done it is very irresponsible. They’d done up to 20 holes. This person, for whatever reason, they’ve done it on the football pitch when they’ve the whole field to do it on.”
In a Facebook post on Sunday, July 7, the club hit out at members of the public who appear to have been using the pitch for non-footballing activities.
“Unfortunately after the football club has spent time and money cutting, marking out and repairing the pitch for the new season, somebody has decided to take chunks out the pitch playing gold,” it reads.
“We have no issue with people using the pitch in this way but please take your shots off the pitch. We have also had to remove numerous piles of dog poo off the pitch as well.
“We want a pitch everyone in the village would be proud of and need your help in succeeding.”
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