Dear Friends of Westleigh, Cricket & Local Sport,

It is with great sadness that for the second time this year we’re writing to inform you of, and ask for your help, in regard to vandalism sustained at our small, village cricket club.

In the early hours of Wednesday 4th October, the Devon & Somerset Fire Service were called to a fire at our pavilion, unfortunately they were unable to do anything to save the structure and it was burnt to the ground.

To say we as a club and as a team are devastated would be a complete understatement.

With all of the hard work that our amazing volunteers do, and the huge numbers of people within the local community who enjoy cricket at Westleigh, it’s completely beyond any of us why anyone would feel the need to do this. Junior and adult teams from Westleigh, North Devon, Buckland Brewer Real Tuff and The Reds play their home fixtures at the club, with many others visiting on tour or for regular league games.

The club is in a remote, idyllic location and whoever has done this has clearly gone to the ground with the intent of starting this fire. Whether it ranges from breaking windows to arson, the damage that these mindless acts of vandalism cause are much greater than the physical damage, hurting anyone with a stake in making this great club what it is.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve been here. 5 years ago, the pavilion was subject to arson and the local community pulled together to rebuild the club. Earlier this year in 2017 we appealed to the local community once again to assist when all of our windows were smashed.

Whether our cricket club, or recently at Torrington RFC where windows were smashed and huge amounts of damage were caused, these completely senseless events will not be enough to deter us or the hundreds of visiting players, young and old, girls and boys alike from continuing to enjoy their cricket at Westleigh.

We’ll go again, we won’t be defeated and we certainly won’t be declaring our innings closed.

Yours in cricket,

Westleigh CC.

If anyone has any information, they can help the police with their investigation by calling 101 and quoting crime reference number: CR/085642/17