A FOOTBALL club has been left ‘disappointed’ and ‘frustrated’ after their pitch was damaged and logs used as a barrier to the neighbouring rugby club were taken.
Graham Mourant, who holds responsibility for facilities at JTC Jersey Wanderers, said that a van drove onto the club’s pitch in St Peter – leaving tyre marks across the turf.
Mr Mourant said he believes the incident took place overnight last Sunday but could not prove it as there were no security cameras in the area.
‘The trees which border the junior pitch and the rugby club car park were getting too big and becoming dangerous to our neighbours so we paid £3,500 to take them down and decided to use them as a barrier to prevent balls going into the car park and hitting a car,’ he said.
‘Our groundsman visited the club on Monday, only to find tyre tracks across the wet pitch and a number of the logs missing,’ he added.
Mr Mourant said this was the third time logs had been stolen from the club.
‘It is really disappointing and frustrating for the club. It is just greedy at the end of the day. If people had asked to take a few logs we may have let them,’ he said.
‘We are a grassroots football club and we don’t have endless amounts of money. They have driven their van across the middle of the pitch and because the grass is wet it has created tyre marks and damaged it. The juniors have been unable to train the last couple of weeks and they still won’t be able to because of this incident,’ he added.
Mr Mourant said the club has put up barriers around the pitch, but did not believe that would stop someone from driving across the ground.
He added: ‘We cannot afford to put security cameras up there and we can’t have someone guarding the pitch all night. We would ask anyone in the surrounding area who sees a van drive onto our pitches at night to report it or ask them why they’re doing it.’
