Community & Business
24 April, 2023
Club devastated by youth damage
A LOCAL cricket club is reeling after juvenile vandals smashed their way into their Firth Park club house through the ceiling last week, stole items and damaged the field with a stolen quad bike.
The incident occurred overnight last Monday, when it is believed youth gained entry into the Mareeba Cricket Club shed through the fibro roof, where they created additional holes in the ceiling to gain entry to the canteen and the storage room.
The culprits stole ice blocks and rubber gloves from the canteen, vandalised the cupboard and utilised the rugby poles to throw at each other and wreaked havoc on the field with a quad bike which was allegedly stolen earlier in the night.
After receiving the distressing call that the club had been vandalised, Mareeba Cricket President Irene Roy rushed to the scene, only to be met with mud, discarded icy pole wrappers, gloves, graffiti and torn up grass in front of the club.
Inside the club, the ceiling was in shambles, and equipment was scattered everywhere, with even a cricket bat found in the toilet.
“There’s gear everywhere and the ceiling is broken, and who has to pay for that, you know? We now have to source funds from raffles and donations to rectify the damage. We use this park for our juniors and ladies, and this setback is detrimental," she said.
“They’ve come with the four-wheeler and wrecked the field, so if we had a game here (the weekend after the damage was done), we would have had to cancel.
“We had plans to get a new roller over at Borzi Park, but this has set us back, and there’s only so much fundraising you can do.”
Police allege the quad bike used in the incident was stolen earlier that night, and have charged four boys, aged 12 and 13, with enter premises and commit indictable offence, attempted enter premises and unlawful use of motor vehicle and one count each of breach of bail, dangerous operation of vehicle, enter premises and commit indicatable offence, enter premises with intent to commit, interfere with fire apparatus and unlawful use of motor vehicle, respectively
