Mulbarton Wanderers FC's equipment stolen from Mulberry Park

Mulbarton Wanderers FC had its John Deere tractor and Quadraplay pitch marking machine taken from a storage shed at the end of the club's Mulberry Park ground last week.

The theft has left the club's grounds staff without any equipment ahead of games being played at the ground, with the club playing at step nine of the football pyramid, in the Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties Premier Division.

The equipment is believed to be stolen between Thursday and Sunday last week (Image: Mulbarton FC)
Duane James has been chairman of the club for eight years and said: "I got a phone call on Monday saying the tractor wasn't there and asking if I moved it.

"I thought it was a joke at first.

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"But when I got there we couldn't find anything - there was just the number plate left but nothing else.

"It's £28,000 worth of equipment which the club's only had about three months."

The club's first team has a cup game against Walsham Le Willows tonight and a league game against Long Melford on Saturday.

The John Deere tractor and quadraplay pitch marking machine which were stolen last week (Image: Mulbarton FC)
Mr James, 55, added: "We're buggered at the moment.

"I'm having to pay staff or contractors to come out and get the pitch ready for our games while trying to sort out the insurance.

"It's about £100 a pitch to prep it until I can get anything back and it could be months before the insurance comes through.

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"It's not just the main pitch - we've now got seven children's pitches which are now out of commission."

The equipment was stolen from Mulbarton Wanderers FC ground, Mulberry Park (Image: Mulbarton FC)
Mr James has reported the incident to police.

"It's frustrating this has happened - we live in a nice neighbourhood and don't usually experience this sort of thing," he said.

"I'm annoyed because you don't expect this to happen, but it has and there's not too much we can do about it right now."