‘MINDLESS’ vandals attacked a sports club in Malvern, causing hundreds of pounds of damage.

The attack happened at Barnards Green Cricket Club in North End Lane some time between 11.30pm on Wednesday, January 2, and 8.30am the following day.

Tables and chairs outside the club house were thrown around the terrace and broken, light fittings ripped off walls, a flagpole pulled down and a satellite TV dish damaged.

Club vice-chairman Robin Longmore said: “This seems to have been just mindless vandalism. It doesn’t look as if they tried to break into the clubhouse.

“The cost of the damage is certainly going to run into the hundreds of pounds. We’ve just had the satellite TV guy out here and he says the dish is going to need replacing.

“Something in the region of £500 to £600 is my guess at the moment.”

The club, which was founded in 1934, currently has three Saturday teams, one on Sundays, and a large number of youth teams.

The clubhouse is also a popular social venue, which often provides a home for functions such as parties and wedding receptions.

The clubhouse is open as a social club every day and hosts local crib, skittles and darts teams and an angling club.

It also provides a meeting place for a variety of groups and societies, including the Malvern Hills Radio Amateurs Club, a dementia support group and others.

Mr Longmore said: “We view ourselves as a bit of a community hub, so to have this kind of thing happening is very dispiriting.

“It’s just completely anti-social behaviour.”

He said that he had heard there had been reports of disturbances in nearby Pickersleigh Road the same evening.

He said: “This is the first time we have had anything like this happen for a good many years.

“The club is run for the most part by volunteers who contribute their own time and efforts to keeping it going, so to have something like this happening is very discouraging.

“It can all be fixed, but we will have to spend money that we would rather have spent on improving the club facilities.”

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101, quoting incident number 104s/30119.