North Walkden FC’s Amblecote Playing Fields have been left ‘unplayable’ for the foreseeable future due to quad and bike vandalism.
The club reported the damage on Sunday morning via a Tweet, containing images detailing the disruption to the pitches at Amblecoat Playing Fields, which houses the majority of North Walkden FC’s youth setup.
Donuts and racing tracks have marked the two pitches, leaving one with barely any grass left.
The vandals left the unprotected pitches completely unusable, leaving over 380 children without any pitches to play on.
In the space of 2 days over the weekend the local idiots on quads and bikes have driven on our pitches that have NO PROTECTION at all to make it unplayable for the foreseeable and possibly rest of the season. This now limits the 28 teams we have within the club to split games 1/3 pic.twitter.com/VZNpysyA1Z
— North Walkden FC (@north_walkdenfc) October 9, 2022
Ben Power, North Walkden FC chairman said: “If these children don’t have these football games, at the weekend 350 kids coming off the streets, what are they gonna do?”
“They’ll probably turn to crime or turn to just being nuisances and they could cause damage to your properties [so] we’re just trying to help the communities and help the children round here.” He added.
Club treasurer, John Thomas, touched on the fact that the costs to repair the grounds will come on top of their charges to rent 3G pitches for their adult teams. He said: “Due to the poor facilities we have in the area, our adult teams are not allowed to play on them because we need changing facilities, so we have to hire out 3G pitches so they can play football. That eats into our budget.
“We’re here to get these kids to play football, and money shouldn’t come into it.”
Support has showered in from the community on social media, an example of which can be seen below, with one Salfordian offering his services as a groundsman to the club:
sorry to read this, Im a local Groundworker & would be willing to help free, Ive just drilled holes with my machine for moorside fc at Agecroft rd for a hand rail to be to installed around pitches might be best for your pitches if u can get the tubes & conc ill help where poss
— Steve (@SteveDbwfc) October 9, 2022
If you would like to help the club get back on it’s feet, they can be contacted via @north_walkdenfc on Twitter.
Recent Comments