VOLUNTEERS at a cricket club have said they feel shattered after their clubhouse came under attack from yobs.

Vandals got onto land at Eagley Cricket Club last week and caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage by daubing graffiti on walls and the clubhouse.

The club, off Blackburn Road, has been affected by damage before but never to this extent, volunteers said.

Volunteer Ian Wilcox, who has been involved with the club for more than 30 years, said: “It’s such a shame. It just knocks you down.

“During the cricket season, we have just short of 100 kids down for practice on Friday and many more play football and tennis there. It’s shattering and so hurtful that people would want to go against our efforts to be at the heart of the community.”

The damage was caused at some point between last Tuesday and Saturday morning when Bradshaw Cricket Club chairman Steve Dickinson spotted it on his way to watch a football match on the neighbouring soccer pitches.

Yobs daubed graffiti tags on the clubhouse, adjoining walls and then on walls near the scoreboard and the war memorial.

He said: “I was horrified. They are a struggling club as it is when it comes to money and this is a setback for them. We give them our full backing.”

On his Twitter account, Mr Dickinson branded the culprits as scum.

Mr Dickinson broke the news to Eagley’s chairman Mike O’Rourke.

Mr O’Rourke said: “It’s just mindless vandalism.

“We have a really committed group of volunteers who are working really hard to improve the club and something like this just knocks you down.

“We’ve got a committee meeting on Tuesday night and we will see what can be done about it, but spending money on better security is difficult.

“Fortunately, we have links with the Probation Service so they will be able to organise a community payback session for people on community service to remove the graffiti.”

Mr O’Rourke said he would report the vandalism to the police and is confident the yobs can be caught if people rally round the club and help with the investigation.