A MINDLESS motorist who drove over Anstey Park ripping up turf and damaging sports pitches has been condemned by Alton Rugby Club. The vandal left muddy tyre tracks across up to three rugby pitches and the cricket square, ploughed through a section of the rope surrounding the cricket square and wrecked turf below one of the rugby pitches. Grounds staff, employed by Alton Town Council, have been forced to spend hours replacing the rope and laying new sections of turf after the incident, believed to have happened last Friday night. Head groundsman John Sadler said: "They have driven across two or three rugby pitches and across the cricket square in muddy conditions. It is not ruts as such, apart from one area - below the number one rugby pitch - where they got stuck with the vehicle and took some turfs up, but that is off the pitch. "It is mostly cosmetic damage and with most of it we are going to let the weather wear it out. They have broken the rope around the cricket square so we will have to repair that and we will replace the turfs below the number one rugby pitch, which will take a couple of hours. "It is something we can do without. We have enough to do without having to cater for vandalism. It is a nuisance." Mr Sadler, who has been head groundsman for around nine years, said motorists driving across the park was an ongoing problem. "It does happen from time to time - probably three or four times a year," he said. "People can more or less drive on from the road. There are various points where they can get on. It would be difficult to enclose the whole area without causing practical problems." Andy Gay, spokesman for the rugby club which plays on Anstey Park, said: "It is extremely frustrating. We have the pitches from the town council and their staff work extremely hard to keep them in good condition. "When we see that vandalism is undoing the good work that they are doing, it is frustrating. I am sure they (the staff) are probably more frustrated than we are because they take a lot of time to get the pitch in good condition, particularly this time of year. "The damage was done at the weekend and it will not disappear for several weeks. It will need several periods of rain and will probably not completely disappear until we get some significant grass growing in the spring." A spokesman for Alton Town Council said the cricket square had not been used by teams last season but an Alton cricket club would be using it on Saturdays in the coming season.