IT cost £135,000 and was intended to be an asset for use by the entire community.

But the people who run the 5ives Sports Club are fighting a pitch battle - against a team of vandals who seem intent on ruining the facility.

The centre in Burnsall Road, Kendray, boasts a total of eight new 4G (the latest synthetic grass) five-a-side and seven-a-side pitches.

Paid for by a Sports England grant, the complex is used by hundreds of people of all ages and both sexes each week.

But the popularity of the place hasn’t stopped vandals from doing their utmost to ruin it.

Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle