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Joyriders churn up historic village green and cricket pitch at Boughton Aluph

By: Aidan Barlow

Published: 00:00, 08 December 2015

Updated: 15:56, 08 December 2015

Morons have wrecked a historic village green and cricket field by performing handbrake turns on the outfield and square.

Villagers at Boughton Aluph near Ashford reported finding the tyre tracks on the outfield and on the main square this morning.

The doughnut tyre tracks reveal where a car skidded onto the green from Lees Road and the marks appear to twist and turn all the way to the middle, where there are repeated loops.

Damage to the cricket square

Club committee member Simon Richardson said the club had made huge efforts to improve the pitches with help from Kent Cricket Board groundsmen.

He said: “We’re back to square one. When I first saw it I was almost in tears, it’s an absolute mess. There is all the anger and frustration after all the effort everyone had put in.

“Whoever has done this has deliberately targeted the middle, they have driven all over the rope and done doughnut and handbrake turns when they realised it was a cricket pitch.

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“It’s heartbreaking. To play decent cricket you need no more than a few millimetres in the difference of level on the surface. There has been a lot of effort this summer and autumn to get it as perfect as possible, now someone has come along and wrecked it.”

The joyriders drove over the rope protecting the cricket square
Joyriders did handbrake turns over the outfield and square

Club president Johnnie Brooks said the extent of the repair work needed will now need to be assessed.

He added: “I was appalled when I saw it. It’s absolutely pointless. A lot of work has gone in trying to make it nice, and that has been wasted.

Club president Johnnie Brooks

“We had embarked on a two to three year long campaign to improve our pitches, but today is was quite severely vandalised, so we’ll have to start again.”

Police are now investigating the incident.

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