Cricket club chief says gang of teens are wrecking pitch

A CRICKET club chairman says hundreds of teenagers are causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage every day - with him claiming some are even “tearing” around the pitch on motorbikes.

Gary Cook, the chairman of Nuneaton Cricket Club, says a gang of teens are terrorising the club, damaging equipment and trashing their pitch on a daily basis.

He said hundreds of pounds of damage has been caused by kids jumping on newly installed speciailist covers at the Weddington ground, with screens also being graffitied and huge piles of rubbish left behind.

Gary said: “This has been giong on since lockdown, there are 200 kids up there sometimes.

“They have been messing around with the covers, jumping up and down on them, and the screens have been graffited. It has been so difficult for us, not being able to play games, without all of this.”

Police have been informed and say they will be stepping up patrols in the area.

But Gary - who fears it will only get worse with the summer holidays in swing - has pleaded with parents and the teens themselves to end the “mindless vandalism” that could potentially have huge consequences for the club’s games.

As well as motorbikes, Gary said electric scooters and a quad bike had also been spotted “tearing up the pitch”.

The team is exasperated with filling bags of rubbish and repairing damage - which could have huge consequences for the club - every day.

“They have also been on the wicket, if they rode on it and it was wet, the damage caused could mean we couldn’t play again all season,” he said.

“They are all 14 to 17-yearsold, they hang around on the balcony on the pavilion and drink and smoke, they go down the side of the club, they go everywhere, we literally pick bags and bags of rubbish up every day.

“Most days they come back with two carrier bags worth of rubbish. It was bad in lockdown and now, with the schools being off, it could get worse.

“We want them to realise what they are doing, for their parents to realise what they are doing, we have seen some parents drop them off in the car park.”

He said the latest damage to the covers is set to cost £400 money the club can ill afford having not being able to host any matches and only just recently opening the club house bar again.

“It is going to be like three winters back-to-back for us, we can’t afford to have to pay for the damage that keeps being caused,” he added.

“We just want it to stop. It is not just the first team matches that could be affected, we have junior teams too, we have some brilliant juniors here, one of them has already made it into the second team.

“We have only just been able to start playing matches again, we don’t want to be forced to stop because of this vandalism.”

Police have been made aware of the repeated vandalism attacks, as has nearby secondary school Higham Lane.

“They [the police] said they are going to come and patrol down here more often, “the club chairman added.

“We know an email has gone out from the school as well to parents.

“We just want people to realise what is going on here and how frustrating it is for us to have to deal with this mindless vandalism.”

Anyone with any information they want to pass on to the police should call 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, which is free to call from a landline and confidential, on 0800 555 111.

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