Wild boar invade football pitch

By pjones

A football match was cancelled after angry wild boars invaded the pitch.

The hogs squeezed though a gap in the fence at Soudley Recreation Ground in the Forest of Dean during the village's match against Charfield on Saturday and dug up giant mounds with their snouts.

The pitch was so badly damaged by the boars, who live in nearby woodland, that the match had to be called off.

The pitch underwent a £1,000 returfing and expansion last April, paid for by fundraising events such as discos.

Gloucestershire Football Association operations manager Chris Lucker said today: "This is the first time we've heard of anything like this. Usually it's motorbikes or cars that tear up pitches, not boars. There is funding available for the upkeep of pitches."

Club secretary Louise Stephens said members and players were "absolutely devastated" by the carnage that afternoon.

She said: "A resident saw the pitch at 8.30am and phoned my husband to say we had to get down straight away. There is no way of playing on the pitch now."

All matches have been postponed while repairs needed to the pitch are assessed and carried out.

After being hunted to near-extinction 300 years ago, wild boars have bred rapidly in recent decades after they were imported from Europe for meat.

Escapes from wildlife parks and farms increased in the 1990s as the captive numbers grew.

In January this year, a wild boar broke into Ruardean Primary School, seven miles away from the Soudley pitch, and was shot dead in the playground after it became aggressive and stomped its feet.

A selective cull of boars was sanctioned in February this year by Biodiversity Minister Joan Ruddock.