Vehicular vandals damage oval

A PORTION of Shelford Recreation Reserve’s oval has been marred with tyre tracks.

Numerous burnout loops are currently etched into the green with the damage mostly done around the oval’s south section.

Management committee and cricket club members were made aware of the vandalism last weekend and estimated it took place on the Saturday.

“We found out last Sunday when one of our townsfolk came onto the oval to walk his dog and found someone had driven on to the oval and did a bit of circle work,” said Shelford Cricket Club president Robert Rice.

“It was disappointing to see it happen because it’s an oval we pride ourselves on being open-access to the community. For someone to do this, it’s disappointing.

“From what we’ve worked out, they’ve undone one of the bolts on the [eastern] bollards, dropped the chain down, and driven onto the south end of the oval.”

Topsoil and sand was placed over the tracks the following Tuesday by a reserve user.

“He donated that to us,” Mr Rice said. “So that was pretty generous of him. It’ll take time more than anything to wait for the grass to grow before the damage is gone.”

As well as the local cricket club, which had about 17 players last season, the reserve is frequently used for walking, exercise, and other recreational activity.

“At the moment, we’ve also got the Teesdale Junior Football Club using the oval because they’re having upgrades done at their oval,” Mr Rice said.

“If there was more damage done to the oval, that would put their activities at risk for the next three or four weeks.

“The one lucky thing is they didn’t do any damage to the pitch or the northern end.”

Mr Rice said the club is looking at options for better security.

“We might look at getting these bollards upgraded or putting in a new system that makes it harder to get onto the oval,” he said. “We might have to invest in a security camera or two.”