'˜Senseless' vandals uproot football club's goal posts

On Wednesday (August 2), club secretary and chairman of Angmering sports and recreation, Ron Hanmore discovered the club’s goal posts had been ‘ripped out of the ground’.

The club is now looking to replace the posts, in Palmer Road Recreation Ground, at a cost of £800.

Ron said: “I arrived at the club on Wednesday to find that the goal posts had been ripped out of the ground on Tuesday evening.

“The goal posts have been pushed to a point that they are no longer usable and need to be replaced.

“We are now being forced to shell out for a set of replacements as we need to replace both of them.

“I have been looking at a few websites and I reckon the cost will be roughly £800 to £900 but I haven’t got a quote yet.

“We would like to get portable goals but there is just no way of funding them.”

This is the not the first time the football club has been the target of vandals.

Last season, a group of vandals decided to damage part of a building on the grounds to the club.

Ron added: “Unfortunately, as a sports club, all our equipment is outside and easily accessible to people who want to vandalise things.

“It is senseless behaviour because they have no idea what impact it can have on clubs like ours.

“We are run by volunteers and today we had to go up to the ground and dig around the goal posts because they need a concrete base.”

With the first game of the football season planned in just a few weeks, Ron is hopeful the ground will be ready in time.

He added: “We are looking to get the goal posts replaced ahead of the first weekend of September.

“We have been victims of vandalism before and we even had travellers on the ground this year but this is worst incident we have had to deal with.

“It is shame people have decided to do this.”