Members of West Malling Golf Club have been left shocked and mystified after a determined attack by vandals wielding a 14lb mallet which has destroyed a memorial hut.

The hut, which was used my members as a shelter from the rain while out on the course, was erected in 1990 as a tribute to two members of the Yellow Peril Group that plays at the club.

Roger McNicholl and Gary Treseden died in a car accident on the A20 on their way to play a match at the club in Trottiscliffe Road, Addington.

Members contributed the £20,000 needed to erect the memorial.

But overnight on Wednesday, vandals attacked the hut with the mallet, tied a rope around the building in an attempt to pull it over and climbed on the roof to knock the slates off.

Katie Still, co-owner of the cub, said: "It is sickening. The damage was just completely mindless. It's not as if they stole anything."

Mrs Still said the club was aware that teenagers occasionally used the hut at night. She said: "We've had several instances in the past when we've found beer cans lying around, and perhaps there has been a little bit of damage, some tee-signs removed, that sort of thing.

"But this has gone to a whole new level.

"There was just no purpose to it - now they can't even sit in it themselves!"

She believed the offenders must have been older youths, because the mallet was left at the scene. She said: "It was pretty big, I would have had a job to wield it."

Police have removed the mallet for forensic testing and also several drinks cans and water bottles left at the scene.

Mrs Still said: "The officers seemed hopeful of lifting DNA evidence, so there is a chance the vandals may be caught yet."

But the attack has left club members in a quandary. They want to re-erect the plaque to their lost friends but are fearful of building another hut, only to have it attacked again.

She said: "We may decide to place the plaque on a tree instead."

The golf course has a number of public rights of way across it. If anyone saw anything of the incident which happened between 7.30pm on Wednesday and 6am on Thursday, they are asked to call police using the 101 number.