A “RECKLESS act” by a group of joyriders has ruined the pitches at Christchurch Rugby Club.

After playing their match against Bournemouth 4s on Sunday, members of the rugby club found their pitches in a sorry state after a trio of men chose to ride across the pitch on a moped.

The offenders videoed themselves riding the red moped across the pitch in Grange Road and uploaded it to Snapchat and TikTok.

No arrests have been made.

Vice-secretary at the club, Donovan Lynaghan, said: “We got a message from someone who lives near the club that the kids have been down there again.

“The guys who did it have done it before. One of them is around 19 and the others are a couple of years older. Its such a reckless act.”

This comes a couple of weeks after tyre marks at Burton Football Club left the pitch “unplayable”.

Christchurch RFC, which was only set up last year, doesn’t have a youth set-up in place yet, so no fixtures were affected by the incident on the Sunday.

“Due to the way our fixtures have worked out, we have a bit of time to let the pitch recover,” said Donovan.

“Steve our grounds keeper already has a difficult job turning that pitch from a cricket pitch to a rugby pitch and back again every year. Acts like this make his already difficult job even more difficult.

“Treating a pitch is expensive, we have to fork out between £5,000 and £10,000 on sand, turf and rubber to improve the drainage so stuff like this really doesn’t help,” he said.

The privately-owned site in Somerford backs onto woodland often used by dogwalkers and the public

The club has restricted access at a few points but has left some entrances open for the public to use.

Donovan said the offenders most likely gained access through the woods.

He added: “We don’t want to be that annoying new tenant that shuts off access to the forest.

"The club has tried to be as respectful as possible by closing off some access points but leaving some open for dog walkers to get out to the forest. The locals have also been very respectful too by not leaving any dog muck on the pitches."

“We don’t want to see them hung drawn and quartered, but if they could come forward, we just want to have a chat with them and see how we can get them involved with the club.”

A police spokesman said: “We were called at 11.44am on Wednesday, February 19, to a report of criminal damage to the rugby pitches at East Christchurch Sports and Social Club.

“It was reported that mopeds were used to drive around the pitches, causing significant damage to the grass.

"No arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing.”