PENSIONERS in a veterans' bowling team have had to turn their clubhouse into "Fort Knox" to deter vandals.

Now they are urging council chiefs to make the Merehall Park green more secure by erecting a metal fence around the boundary.

They say golfers use the Brownlow Fold bowling green to practise chip-shots and children use it for five-a-side games. Earlier this week a teenager ploughed over the green on a stolen motorbike.

Bowler John Marsh said team members had had enough.

"Everyone is just fed up. There have been so many vandal attacks on the clubhouse that we have had to install metal shutters," he said.

"But we can't keep people off the green because there's no fencing. Golfers start using it to practise their chip-shots as soon as the hot weather arrives and the motorbike made a right mess.

"We all pay good money to play bowls here. We just wish the council would install some fencing to help us protect the green."

A council spokesman said there had been "few" vandal attacks at Merehall Park in recent months until the incident with the motorbike. A workman has spent the past few days repairing the green.

"We have had a lot of requests for fencing from bowling clubs," he added. "We have started a rolling programme and are trying to provide fences for as many clubs as we can."