Bosses at a rugby club say they are “absolutely gutted” their equipment was damaged by vandals for the second time this month.

Goalposts at Deal and Betteshanger Rugby Club were pulled from the ground and nets to stop balls from hurling into neighbouring gardens were slashed by yobs during the first incident overnight between September 6 and 7.

Youth director Matt Lane initially put it down to a one-off incident, but was shocked when a similar thing happened again overnight on Wednesday last week.

Mr Lane said: “A couple of weeks ago we had the first reported incident.

“One of the mums of a player from the club was walking across the field and saw the post had been pulled out.

“Members went down and had to reinstate the post which took quite a while.

“We've got ball-catching nets between us and the neighbours and we have to hoist them up every game to stop balls going over, but all of those lines were slashed the first time.

“It's a considerable amount of work because they're big steel posts.

“We put it down to an isolated incident, that was until I got a call on Thursday morning.

“The posts were completely pulled out this time and they've actually damaged one of the brackets which holds the crossbar.

“Whoever did it put considerable effort into this, especially the lines that were cut the first time, so it would lead to believe that it's premeditated.”

Volunteers have rallied around to inspect and repair the damage and the posts have since been put back in place.

Mr Lane added: “We are absolutely gutted this has happened again.

“We do an awful lot for the youth of the community, and for adults of the community.

“It's an entirely self-funded volunteer organisation, we're a good piece of the community and now we need to look at boosting our own security.

“Whether that be more CCTV, which is potentially a few thousand pounds that isn'tput back into the children or the club, it's gutting.“

Police say they received a report of criminal damage caused to a set of goalposts and sports nets.

The incident was reported to have taken place at the sports club in Canada Road, Deal, between 6pm on September 6 and 12pm the following day.

Anyone with information regarding the damage should contact Kent Police on 01843 222289 quoting 46/155841/24.