Gang of vandals target cricket club huts at Nether Heyford

Criminals have targeted Heyford Cricket Club's facilities numerous times in the past.

The latest incident took place between Saturday midnight night and 1am Sunday morning and the culprits have been caught on CCTV.

Chairman Rob Pardon, one of Heyford Cricket Club's stalwarts, said: "It's just sad. We’ve had various small spates of vandalism at the facility before.

"Over the winter our changing huts were broken into and a few years ago, a group of teenagers jumped up and down on our pitch covers, causing more significant damage. On this occasion, fortunately, the cost for reparations will be minimal as one of club members has offered to carry out the work for us for free."

He said Heyford CC is a vibrant village club, run and organised by volunteers.

"We’ve grown to a club with three adult teams and a junior section with well over 100 children ages 5-12," he added.

"As with most clubs, we are run and organised by volunteers - giving up hours of time to coach, coordinate and administer the club’s activities. It's so sad to watch the CCTV footage of eight or nine people head straight to our huts, climb on them, break in and then before leaving smashing seven perspex windows’ ."

He said the footage suggests the vandals knew where they were going.

"We have no idea why they decided smash things up before leaving," added Rob.

"The big disappointment is that it just provides more work for our hardworking volunteers. We haven’t reported anything other than informing our PSCO, the CCTV is not good enough in pitch darkness to identify individuals. So, it’s a case of suck it up, take it on the chin, focus on the good things our club does for adults and young people in the community."

If you know anything about the incident contact the PCSO Matt Taylor or [email protected]