WHEN Melissa Bestwick turned up early at Cooke Hockey Complex on Sunday morning to open it for the day, she literally couldn't believe what she found.
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Vandals had broken into the centre, and covered the playing fields with toilet paper, and left human excrement on the turf. They had also destroyed the bunting set up to ensure the complex is COVID-19 compliant.
Mrs Bestwick, who manages the complex, said she could see there was something on the playing fields as she drove in, but never expected to find what she did.
Understandably, she, and the other band of volunteers who have worked incredibly hard this year to even provide a hockey season for local players, were shattered.
"When I drove into the complex I could see something (on the turf) and I thought what's that?
"Sometimes the shadows can play tricks on you, but when I opened the gates I found toilet paper all over the turf and human faeces."
Then she saw bunting, erected by volunteers in their own time, destroyed.
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She said she was so upset, she just felt like sitting down and crying.
"All we are trying to do is let people come down and enjoy a game of hockey."
She said the last few months had been hard enough without someone doing this.
Mrs Bestwick said a small group of volunteers had worked around the clock to enable the Bathurst hockey community to get back on the field and enjoy a game safely in the current Covid-19 climate.
She said in all, about five people, have put in countless hours doing applications for both local government and Hockey NSW and that was simply just to open the gates and enable teams to train.
"That's without studying the legislation, looking at what had to be in place, setting up the grounds and making sure adequate cleaning is being done, it has been a mammoth task," she said.
Which is why she was so upset about Sunday morning.
"Our volunteers have done an enormous job getting hockey up and running this season, so when I arrived here early Sunday morning to open up for the games, and found what I found, I was pretty shattered," she said.
"We've come across so many hurdles to get here, we didn't need this to deal with," she said.
Mrs Bestwick said she was determined not to let the vandals ruin everyone's weekend, so she got in and cleaned up and replaced the bunting, in time for the games to go ahead.
"We just want people to come and enjoy the game," she said.
