Horses nuisance causing big headache for rugby contest

Officials at Bishop Auckland Rugby Club are pressing ahead with Sunday's competition despite fears that horses grazing illegally at their West Mills ground could put players and spectators at risk.

Teams from County Durham and Teesside are due to play in the tournament, which has been renamed the Ted Robinson Memorial Sevens as a tribute to the club's founder member and former chairman, who died last year.

But present chairman Ron Williamson is frustrated because the club cannot keep horses off its three pitches, which are rented from Wear Valley District Council.

He said: "The owners have even pulled posts of a five-bar gate out of cement and cut through fences to get them on

"At some games we have had them grazing on the side of the pitch. It is frustrating because we can't get anything done. Nobody has an answer.

"We are reluctant to chase them down the lane because there could be young children or cars there and somebody might get hurt."

The club had considered cancelling the tournament, but decided to go ahead.

An official statement at the weekend said: "Not only do these horses present a physical threat to players and spectators, who include a number of young children, they also constitute a major health hazard."

After six-year-old Georgina Coates was hurt when she got her leg caught up in a tethered horse's chain at Coundon Grange last week, her father Malcolm warned that somebody could be killed.

The animal disappeared from the council recreation ground where it had been left grazing, after the incident was reported in The Northern Echo.

After years trying to solve the problem, council leader Olive Brown urged people to press MPs for a licensing system so that only people who could prove they had access to grazing land would be allowed to keep horses.

Councillor Margaret Ingledew said: "There is no Appleby Fair this year for them to sell their foals, so there will be more horses left to run free."