Tag Archive for: Vandals

Vandals cause £1000 of pitch damage

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Vandals cause £1000 of pitch damage: Members of Old Laurentian RFC and Old Laurentians Minis & Juniors have been left saddened after finding £1,000 of damage to their pitches.

On the night of Wednesday, October 9 – October 10, vandals caused around £1,000 of damage to two out of the three pitches on the site, off Lime Tree Avenue.

The damage means that the hundreds of under 7s and under 12s players were facing not being able to play this weekend.

But Market Bosworth RFC kindly offered the use of their facilities this weekend – and until the pitches can be brought back up to standard.

Kevin Vince, chairman of the Minis and Juniors branch of the club, told the Advertiser: “Volunteers put a lot of time and effort over the summer to get these pitches to the point they are possibly the best in the county.

“And then some little scumbags come onto the pitch and cause £1,000 worth of damage in one night – we’ve been set back by months.

“I would be saying to them, ‘if you’re big enough and brave enough to cause this damage, why don’t you come up and explain to hundreds of children why they can’t play rugby on their pitches this weekend? But they won’t, because they’re cowards’.

“For a lot of the children, this is the highlight of their week.

“This mindless act of vandalism has achieved nothing. For a quick fix of laughs they have disappointed hundreds of kids.

Mr Vince praised the rugby-playing community and the residents of the town for their kind responses.

He said: “The rugby-playing community has come together with loads of people offering to help in whatever way they can, and the local community is helping out and checking CCTV.

Mr Vince said the club’s hundreds of members are all intent on catching the vandals so the police can deal with them.

He said: “Our club, when you include the families, is over 800 strong. We’re all listening and eventually one of us will hear something.

“Everyone is disgusted with this act of mindless vandalism, but we’re going to come back even stronger as a club.”

Andrew Spriggs, chairman of Old Laurentian RFC, said: “Since the incident our volunteers have been working hard to undo the damage.

“One contractor dropped everything they were doing and drove up from the Cotswolds to help.

“It’s disappointing – we try to be open to the community and encourage our neighbours on Lime Tree Avenue to come and use the grounds walk their dogs.

“We don’t want to close the grounds off to sensible people, but we are looking at having security posts and CCTV installed to deter anything like this from happening again.

“The response from the community has been marvelous.

“We’re hoping the pitches can be repaired next week.”

Mr Spriggs said there has already been some CCTV unearthed which could help with the investigation.

“We’re all going to do everything we can to see that these people are caught and brought to justice,” he added.

A spokesperson for the club took to Facebook, stating: “We have a team of volunteers who work tirelessly to keep our wonderful pitches in top condition and the impact of this will affect every single one of our players.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Warwickshire Police on 101, quoting crime ref 23/42725/19.

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Willingdon GC targeted by vandals

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Willingdon GC targeted by vandals: Vandals took a spade to greens at Willingdon Golf Club in an ‘extreme’ and ‘premeditated’ attack this week.

Course manager Luke Turner described it as the “worst vandalism” he’d experienced in his decade at the club, and says it could take until spring to fully repair the damage.

Course manager Luke Turner described it as the “worst vandalism” he’d experienced in his decade at the club, and says it could take until spring to fully repair the damage.

He said, “We put in a lot of work and time and effort into creating excellent surfaces and some person decides to come along and vandalise and create damage.

“This is about the most severe I’ve seen in 10-11 years. It’s very extreme and premeditated.”

Luke said someone had cut a hole in a fence and taken a spade or shovel and dug up large areas of three greens, at about 4-5 square metres wide.

“They have come equipped to do it,” he said, “They have walked a considerable distance, almost a kilometre.

“It took about 25 hours to get the surfaces repaired enough to play on again. To get it back to the required high standard it will take most of the winter and into the spring.”

So far it has cost around £1,500 to repair the damage, and has put teams behind schedule.

Luke said, “It affects our visitors and members that come to play here. We work so the greens are in fantastic condition all year round. The amount of work that goes into repairing mindless vandalism…”

A post on social media has received a lot of support from the public, he said,

It said, “It really is difficult to understand some people. This morning we have been greeted by the worst vandalism I’ve experienced.

“Sorry for the disruption to the regular course… it is going to take time to fix this.”

The incident happened overnight on Wednesday, between the hours of 10pm and 5.30am.

If you have any information, contact police online or on 101.

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Vandals Leave Golf Green ‘Completely Shredded’

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Vandals Leave Golf Green ‘Completely Shredded’: This was the scene of devastation left at a golf course after an off-road buggy was seen performing ‘doughnuts’ on the greens.

A section of the course at Prestwich Golf Club has been ruined after the act of vandalism, which took place at 4.40pm last Friday.

It is believed someone managed to gain access to the golf club via a path from nearby Kersal Moor before driving across a green, fairway and teeing complex.

The course has been left badly damaged, with evidence of tyre marks and mounds of turf having been torn up.

Furious golf club bosses estimate it will cost them tens of thousands of pounds to repair the damage.

Police are investigating. No arrests have been made.

Golf course manager, Chris Harding, said: “The damage is horrendous, it has been completely shredded.

“It is going to cost a hell of a lot of money to repair.”

A major course remodelling, costing just shy of £1m is currently taking place at the club.

The work has been funded by a payment from a developer as part of an agreement to build 17 luxury homes on part of the old course.

Half the course has been closed since last September while contractors carry out work on the scheme, which will see 11 holes altered.

Mr Harding said the damaged section of course had only been laid down for three months and is yet to be played on.

It had been hoped that the course would be ready to play on by June, but the latest act of vandalism has proved a major setback to that schedule and has left members ‘gutted’.

“The club doesn’t deserve this,” said Mr Harding.

“There has been a good buzz about the place, but everyone is just feeling flat now.

“It’s heartbreaking after all the work and dedication that has gone into it.

“A lot of time and money has gone into building the course and making sure it is ready to play on.”

“It is going to take a lot of time and effort to get us back on schedule.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police confirmed the force had received a report of the incident, adding: “The damage is believed to have been caused by an off-road four wheel drive vehicle that has been driven on the green.

“No arrests have been made at this stage and anyone with information should contact police on 101.”

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Vandals Rip Up Furness GC

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Vandals Rip Up Furness GC: Golfers have called on the community to ‘grass up’ the mindless vandals who caused a ‘hole’ lot of damage on their course.

Over the last two decades officials at Furness Golf Club on Walney have had to contend with regular incidents of criminal damage on the greens.

These have ranged from someone using a pitchfork to leave a trail of holes across the course to fires being started in the gorse.

As a result the club has had to fork out thousands of pounds on repairs with the greenkeeper’s time spent painstakingly fixing the divots.

Greens chairman Jon Clarke said the club hopes the community will keep a close eye out for any culprits after the latest incident this week where wedges of turf had been pulled from the green.

“I can’t see what anyone would get out of it; it’s completely mindless and senseless,” he said.

“It’s been going on for the last 15 or 20 years; every year there’s been at least 10 examples of vandalism.

“We had one where it looked like somebody had gone across the green and used a pitchfork to put holes all over the place.

“Just four weeks ago the gorse was set on fire and it took 48 hours to put out. That’s not just a drain on our resources but also for the police and fire.”

Club members have spent hundreds of hours repairing the damage which also impacts on them indirectly through increased membership fees.

“It’s incredibly frustrating because all golf courses now are struggling to keep going and it is our members who end up having to pay for the repairs because we need to recoup the costs somehow,” Mr Clarke added.

Over the years club officials estimate they have spent half a million pounds repairing damage caused by vandals.

Every year maintenance of the course costs around £250,000.

Barrow Police have confirmed they are investigating reports of vandalism to the golf course.

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Cricket Club Slams Vandals

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Cricket Club Slams Vandals: The chairman of a cricket club has voiced his anger after their pitch was vandalised ahead of an all-important title decider.

Players and officials at Bradenham Cricket Club were left devastated last week after groundsman Brett Gates arrived to find the outfield desecrated with tyre marks.

Mr Gates subsequently took to social media to call out the “mindless damage”, branding the offenders “muppets”.

And now Tim Evans, chairman of the club, has blasted those responsible for spoiling a highly-valued community asset.

“It is just so disappointing to see,” said Mr Evans. “Whoever’s done this has just mindlessly driven round the pitch and even on the square as well. You can still see the circles where they have gone round.

“We’re fortunate that the ground itself was not that wet at the time. It was a bit damp but, had it been wet, the damage would’ve been much worse.

“We’ve had a really good year and Brett and others have put in untold work on the outfield to keep it looking nice – not just for the club, but for the whole village.

“It is just so frustrating – after all the hard work that’s been put in – to see the pitch ruined by some idiots who think they are clever. They’ve achieved nothing by doing this, other than making a complete mess of something in their own village.”

As Bradenham First XI prepares for its final game of the season at home to table-toppers Great Melton on Saturday (August 31), the club feels the pitch could barely have been damaged at a worse time.

A win will see second-placed Bradenham leapfrog their rivals into top spot, handing them the Norfolk Cricket Alliance division three title.

“Having this match against Great Melton on Saturday is all the more reason to be disappointed about the damage,” added Mr Evans.

“We’ve cut the grass and been round the pitch with a roller which has flattened out the marks as best we can ready for the weekend.

“Bradenham’s promotion has not been confirmed yet as there are all sorts of other factors that come into it, but as far as we know and as far as we’ve been told, it looks 99pc sure that we’re going up.”

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