WEEKEND trippers who have been using prepared wickets at the picturesque St Mary's playing field at Amersham Old Town for Sunday morning 'knockabouts' have angered residents who have complained to the council which owns the grounds.

The cricket field, complete with its own pavilion and modern facilities, backs on to properties in the High Street. One resident told the Free Press: "We were absolutely astonished when we saw a gang of trippers for the second week running using the prepared wicket for a knockabout. This was not a case of a group of young hooligans misbehaving, but a party of people completely equipped with regulation size bats, stumps and a proper ball misusing the pitch. I went and told them to stop using the pitch.

"They gave me a Churchillian gesture and told me that it was a public park. They spoke with cockney accents and must have come out for the day."

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