Cricket club in vandal attack

ROYTON Cricket Club officials were knocked for six when vandals wrecked the pitch the day before Saturday’s match.

An angry Jim Young, vice chairman of the 138-year-old club, said: “Some idiots took a wheelie-bin from behind the clubhouse, wheeled it down on to the square and set it alight.”

Officials turned up on Friday morning to find melted plastic stuck to part of the square which had been specially prepared for the following day’s match against Unsworth.

“We had a job getting it off . We had to use spades to skim in off, which left a big bald patch, but we had no choice. It would have been too dangerous to play otherwise,” said Mr Young.

The club’s groundsman did the best he could to repair the damage but the ground won’t be back up to scratch until new grass seed has grown.

The incident is the latest in a long history of vandalism which has plagued the ground, and the club has now vowed to upgrade its CCTV system to make sure vandals can be identified.

“We have suffered vandalism for years, but this is the first time the pitch has been attacked,” said Mr Young.

“It’s a sad reflection of society, but we were not going to let it stop Saturday’s match.

“It turned out to be a beautiful day, children were playing all over the place and it was a delight to see.”

In March, the Barnsdale Avenue club was targeted by arsonists who destroyed £5,000 worth of equipment when they set fire a storage hut.

The club faces a constant battle against yobbish behaviour which over the years has resulted in smashed benches, destroyed fences, and unsightly graffiti scrawled over the pavilion walls.