A FOREST cricket club which has been going since the 1880s has been forced to close its site due to mass boar damage, it has been claimed.

Yorkley Star Cricket Club has always been open for recreation and dog walkers, as well as cricket and football matches, but mass boar damage since spring means the Cut and Fry Green has closed.

Club trustee, Alec Kear said: “Earlier in the year we spent money restoring and reseeding a very large patch of boar damage but cricket could not be played all season.

“Last week another huge patch of damage has occurred and we too have admitted defeat as the club has not got enough money to repair yet again – plus all of the cricketers have now joined other clubs. This is the end of a cricket club that has been in existence on Cut and Fry green at Yorkley since the 1880s.

“The only thing we can now consider is fencing the whole ground, a massive and very costly project. Then too will be the ongoing cost of grass cutting. The trustees, of which I am one, have to make some very difficult decisions.

“We contacted the Forestry Commission in the spring after the first damage and were informed that it is up to the local community to ‘find the answers’.

“To lose this unique open space would be a tragedy but to reinstate cricket at Yorkley may take some considerable time and money.”