Vandals destroy Basin Reserve's picket fence

Players arriving at the Basin Reserve today for the first day of the State Championship match between Wellington and Central Districts were surprised to find a number of large gaps, like conspicuous missing teeth, in the ground's usually pristine picket fence.

Several separated sections of palings in front of the terraces on the eastern side of the ground had been driven down during Friday night and lay, alternately, inside and outside the remaining fence which marks the Basin Reserve's perimeter.

Over a space of some 30 yards there remained a few standing sections of fence and between them, a number of wide and surprising openings.

During Friday night a group of mischief makers who had been apparently undeterred by rain and cold temperatures had managed to start the Basin Reserve's heavy roller by connecting the wires of its ignition and had driven it slalom fashion down a long section of the low, white fencing. They had veered first one way then the other through the picket fence, knocking down intermittent sections and leaving palings strewn this way and that.

The roller was then left, wedged behind an advertising hoarding, in front of the embankment at the northern end of the ground.

The broadcasting box in the RA Vance stand had been broken into, though nothing of value was taken. Storerooms in the old grandstand were broken open and attempts had been made to remove some of the ground's sound system.