‘Thoughtless’ golfers leave new village football pitch full of holes

Ryan Taylor, manager of Southwater football team, was furious to find golfers had been practising their swing on the team’s four month old football pitch, leaving it covered in divots.

He said: “We had a game there last night. I was setting it up and then saw them [divots] all over the place - which doesn’t look nice.

“[There must be] about 20 or 30 of them in our penalty box.

“People should have a little bit of common sense. It’s a bit thoughtless - selfish in a way.”

Ryan said sightings of golfers on the pitch had been reported by people at the club.

He added: ““It was very frustrating. Especially considering there’s a driving range one mile away. You’re just not thinking about the community as a whole.

“You have been waiting for about four or five years [for the new facility] - if they went about ten yards out they would be off the pitch.

“They have not thought about anyone else.”

Ryan said he would be putting the pitch right in his own time and hopes Berkeley Homes, who funded the new sports complex, will help out.

He added: “Fingers crossed they will give us a bag of sand and we’ll go round and fill them in by hand.

“At the end of the day it’s going to be me and a few other assistants wasting our day. [The damage is] careless, thoughtless, not really considerate.”