![Westbury Shamrocks president and co-curator Michael Claxton has been helping repair the damage at Ingamells Oval this week. Pictures by Brian Allen Westbury Shamrocks president and co-curator Michael Claxton has been helping repair the damage at Ingamells Oval this week. Pictures by Brian Allen](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/brian.allen/a5df4c00-c4a8-46e9-b0cc-21dc8b8b896e.jpg/r0_0_2400_1349_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A "senseless act" has left Westbury Cricket Club volunteers dejected ahead of hosting one of the marquee matches of the Cricket North season.
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The Ingamells Oval centre square and pitch was on Tuesday night vandalised ahead of the Shamrocks' first versus second clash against South Launceston.
The centre square adjacent to the pitch has been roughed up by what appears to be bike tracks.
Fortunately the damage to the pitch is minimal with one long tyre mark near the crease at the clubroom end.
It's meant heartbreak for Shamrocks president Michael Claxton and secretary/treasurer Sharon Heazlewood who voluntarily maintain the centre square and pitch.
Claxton said he tended to the ground every day of the week.
"What's happened just adds more work for volunteers which is not good for us," he said.
"You're trying to bring up a reasonable wicket for an A grade game and you turn up on a Wednesday morning and see that's happened, you say some nasty words."
Claxton said the damage was done between Tuesday at 6.30pm and Wednesday at 6.30am.
He said they had just started to prepare the wicket and had watered the square.
The president arrived on Wednesday morning to find a long trail of black mud from the square to the car park.
He said it wasn't the first time it had happened.
"It's frustrating as the only club to have volunteers do the wicket," he said.
"We can have that (square) as wet as anything and you have people walk straight across it.
"But this is probably the most (vandalism) we've had for a couple of years.
"It has happened before with push bikes after we water it."
He highlighted how much disrespect had been shown to the hard work done in the past.
"We could water it on Sunday night, sit down and have a drink and all of a sudden you'll see three people walk straight across it, they don't walk around it," he said.
What happens to the match?
Claxton feels Saturday's play will still go ahead at Ingamells Oval despite the damage.
"It'll go ahead, we were very lucky they didn't ride the push bikes on the wicket we were going to use, in saying that we probably spent three hours (on Wednesday) trying to flatten out the tread marks," he said.
"You never get rid of them completely and you struggle to get the grass to grow."
He added it was "not an ideal time to roll the new grass".
The club would like responsibility taken for the action and has called for anyone with information to come forward.
Further action
Claxton called for the Meander Valley Council to act on the issue.
"It needs to be looked at more, we can't keep going getting vandalised two or three times a year, whether it's a push bike or people walking across it," he said.
"You could rope that area off and people would still walk through it."
He said it would be great to see the council, who currently mow and water the outfield, to take ownership of the whole ground.
"It would be fantastic to see them take ownership of the centre square as well," he said.
"With the young grass, you need to be here all the time watering it. We haven't got the people to do that."
Alarmingly, Claxton is worried about vandals striking again this week.
"We had rain here (on Wednesday night), you think 'are they going to come back and do other stuff?'," he said.
South Launceston captain Jeremy Jackson expressed his support for the Shamrocks.
"It's really disappointing that somebody out there would do something like that, there's no reason for it, it's just a really low act," he said.
"I really feel for all those involved out there and particularly Clacker (Claxton) and those that are responsible for putting the work into that wicket."
Westbury v South Launceston at Ingamells Oval
The Shamrocks are already through to the grand final with 101.9 ladder points so will be looking to tune up for finals.
But there's more at stake for the second-placed Knights on 81.5, which is 7.5 ahead of Riverside.
They are well positioned to earn a home final but anything could happen.
Jackson feels South have played well since Christmas but said the top-of-the-table Sharmocks presented a tough challenge.
He was expecting to be missing Oliver Knowles on day one and be without Jack Crane for both days due to school cricket.
Westbury skipper Daniel Murfet, who is likely to play with Greater Northern Raiders again, said the Shamrocks didn't want to give the Knights an inch in terms of the premiership race.
"We don't know what's going to happen after this round but there's every chance we could be coming up against them again soon," he said.
"The last thing we want is to be giving them any sort of confidence if they were to get a win against us."
Launceston v Riverside at NTCA no. 1
This match will decide the third and last team to make the finals.
The third-placed Blues are in the box seat with 74 ladder points while the Lions are on 63.2.
Incredibly, Riverside have won all of their three two-day matches but are still not officially in the finals given the tight season.
"The one thing we have is belief in our group we can win key moments of the game," coach Patty Mackrell said.
"We're just keen to continue that on and control the momentum of the game."
The Blues are also a chance of snaring a home final if they win big.
Lions coach Heath Clayton said his team would look to be attacking as they hang onto their faint finals hope.
"We will need to play with freedom to take the game on. Whilst it's mathematically possible, we will need an outright result to make finals so it's on the guys to chase the result," he said.