Snack shack vandalism will cost football club money

3 hours ago

Charlie Stubbsin Baschurch

News image — Pauline Best has been part of the committee of Baschurch Junior Football Club since her two boys started playing

Charlie Stubbs / BBC There is a woman with brown shoulder-length hair, a pink flowery blouse and a flower pendant around her neck. She is stood underneath a wooden frame which is used by the snack shack to stay dry. Behind her is the shack, which is painted dark green. — Pauline Best has been part of the committee of Baschurch Junior Football Club since her two boys started playing

Repairs to a vandalised refreshments stand will cost money a grassroots football club does not have, it said.

Staff at Baschurch Juniors Football Club found the snack shack it runs had been graffitied, glass on its barbecue smashed and a small petrol fire set next to it.

The team is a village club in Shropshire which has 260 boys and girls in its ranks. Cost are kept to a minimum as it has one of the lowest joining fees in the county.

Club secretary Pauline Best, who discovered the vandalism on Sunday, said it had come at the worst possible time as the club was due to have its awards day at the weekend.

Best joined the club when her two boys started playing there.

Despite both of them playing for different teams now, she has continued to spend time in the snack shack, using all the profits she makes to pay for equipment for the club.

"I felt really sad, very sad and disappointed. Sad for the local community that this would happen and also sad for whoever did it," Best said.

"All of us on the committee have full-time jobs, we volunteer our time and we get absolutely nothing in return apart from just seeing the value that it brings to people."

Charlie Stubbs / BBC There is multi-coloured graffiti on a grey metal wall. It includes big symbols and two blurred out images. There is also a metal ladder in front of it and two branches on the top. To the far right, there is two red gas cannisters — The shack had spray-canned graffiti on two of its sides

After posting an appeal on Facebook, the club's neighbour Baschurch Village Hall said it had security cameras and would let the club look to see if it had any footage.

Best added the committee would now try to get its own cameras to stop this from happening again, despite challenges it could face. The snack shack runs off a generator, so electricity would have to be installed.