Vandals broke into Accrington Cricket Club on Monday (June 19), causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

The vandals broke in at around 1am, damaging bi-folding doors, a garage roof, and the site’s alarm and CCTV system.

Bryan McGrath, committee member at Accrington Cricket Club, said it will cost thousands of pounds to repair and replace the damaged facilities, some of which were only fitted six months ago.

Bryan said: “We'd had a very successful weekend and people were enjoying themselves in our upgraded facility.

“Now it has been spoilt and we had to deal with a call from police on Monday before leaving for our regular day jobs.

“Any profit we made over the successful weekend will now have to be put towards repairs and replacements that we didn’t plan to do until next year or the year after.”

Bryan said this is not the first time the club has fallen victim to anti-social behaviour, after a series of vandalism incidents culminated in their roll-on covers being damaged earlier this year.

He said it is frustrating to have been broken into, as the cricket club volunteers work tirelessly to give the community an events and sporting facility.

He said: “It seems to be becoming a bit of a theme as we have had issues with anti-social behaviour in the past.

“It hurts that we are trying hard to provide this venue for the community and yet we get incidents like this.

“We do all of this work for the club, as volunteers, to generate a facility for the community to use.

“We hold a lot of activities outside of cricket season in order to upgrade and renew the facilities so to have these type of incidents is demoralising.”

Bryan has thanked the neighbourhood policing unit for their support and is encouraging anyone with information to come forward.

The club has also asked the community and volunteers for their support as repairs get under way.

Bryan said: “The club will once again ask local authorities for help to make our community club safe and secure.

“If anyone can support us with our repairs it would be greatly appreciated.”

Lancashire Police has been approached for comment.