I WAS saddened, but not entirely shocked, at the news that the Kearsley Park bowling club had been vandalised.

In the same issue of the Bolton Evening News in which the news of the cowardly arson attack on the club appeared (Wednesday, January 26), I had a letter published, praising the club for its efforts, and its success in getting young people interested in bowling, and I held the club up as an excellent example of how to deal with vandals.

My timing could not have been worse!

There are those, of course, and as ever, who will gloat, and say that vandals should be ostracized. But they are wrong!

Yes there are those who are beyond help, but in the main, most are just misguided. Many are simply led-on by the hardcore idiots.

We cannot give up on our young people, who, through no fault of their own, have been brought up in a sad world of me! me! me! and who, in many cases, have parents with a similar attitude problem.

I feel sure that the members of this club, the young and the not-so-young, will get back on their feet, dust themselves down, and continue to contribute to the general good of the community, as well as enjoying the sport they all obviously enjoy so much.

May I wish them all the success their hard work and dedication deserves, for the future.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton