As cricket fans celebrated the incredible Ben Stokes-inspired Ashes victory thid weekend, one local club was left fuming after vandals caused mindless damage.
And in a worrying development, officials at Guilsfield Cricket Club also discovered a smoke grenade that had been let off on the same evening as the damage was caused.
Officials arrived at their school ground on Bank Holiday Monday to discover that their boundary rope had been strewn across the field and the practice cage, only purchased at the start of the season, had been tipped over and broken.
But officials also declared that a smoke grenade had been found near the damage.
It is believed the incident may have happened on Saturday evening.
“It is worrying that these people are going around with weapons like this,” said a club spokesperson. “We have worked hard to build the sort of facilities that we can proud of in Guilsfield but unfortunately someone feels they need to cause this level of damage.
“We have some information provided to us, and if the same names are repeated we will forward to the police along with the grenade which we have bagged for finger prints. It gives those responsible time to come to their senses and step forward to apologise and pay for the damage (about £250) and we’ll all move on. Otherwise the consequences could be very serious for them.”