Melbourne club dismayed by suspected e-bike vandalism of cricket pitch
Williamstown CYMS Cricket Club members woke on Sunday morning to thick, heavy tyre marks across the pitch the club believes was caused by an e-bike. (Supplied: Bill Millar)
In short:
Suspected e-bike vandals have destroyed a cricket club's pitch in Melbourne's inner south-west.
Williamstown CYMS Cricket Club says deep tyre marks were found across the turf wicket yesterday morning.
What's next?
It is the third Melbourne cricket club to have its pitch vandalised in the past two weeks and police are investigating the incident.
A local cricket club in Melbourne's inner south-west has expressed dismay after its turf pitch was destroyed by suspected vandals on e-bikes.
Williamstown CYMS members woke to find deep tyre marks across the wicket at Fearon Reserve yesterday morning.
The club's head coach Nick Duxson said the pitch was roped off after day one of a match was played on Saturday.
The pitch at Fearon Reserve in Williamstown is the third to be vandalised across Melbourne in the past two weeks. (Supplied: Bill Millar)
"Clearly somebody's made the decision to go out to the middle and get their bike onto the track and make some really deep indentations on the turf wicket," he said.
"It's incredibly disappointing."
It us the latest in of several vandalism incidents at cricket club pitches across Melbourne.
East Sunbury Cricket Club, north-west of Melbourne, said its synthetic pitch was damaged by fire on Friday night.
East Sunbury Cricket Club's pitch was damaged by fire 24 hours before the pitch at Williamstown was vandalised. (Facebook: East Sunbury Cricket Club)
"It looks like someone's set off a firebomb-type thing or some fireworks and one end of the pitch was engulfed in flames," club president Alec Boorsma said.
Two weeks ago, Caroline Springs Cricket Club in Melbourne's west also had its turf pitch damaged — also believed to have been caused by e-bike riders.
Caroline Springs Cricket Club says thousands of dollars and countless volunteer hours are put into maintaining its turf pitch. (Facebook: Caroline Springs Cricket Club)
Mr Duxson said local cricket clubs found maintaining a turf wicket challenging enough in itself, with club volunteers spending hours each week getting the surface match ready.
"It's the one part of the ground that is probably most valuable in terms of being able to get a game of cricket on," he explained.
He said the club's curator is hopeful the pitch can be salvaged prior to the senior team's second day on Saturday.
"I would say it's unlikely that we play this weekend, but I think that [the curator] is hoping to give us a chance."
"It's going to take weeks, months, just to get it back to the level it was."
Victoria Police confirmed it was investigating the incident, it said occurred at 10:00pm Friday evening.
East Sunbury Cricket Club said it was considering alternative venues while its synthetic pitch is repaired and that the damage had come at a high cost to the club.
The club says it is unlikely the pitch will be in a good enough condition to play this weekend. (Supplied: Bill Millar)
"We've been very fortunate with our local community; we've had a lot of clubs around the Sunbury area reach out to us and offer us their spare grounds," Mr Boorsma said.
"Be better. You're not just affecting one person or one club, you're affecting a community."
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