A central feature of the local community with over 300 players of all ages, Linden Park Cricket Club and its welcoming 130-year-old clubhouse provided a quintessential sense of British history complementing the beautiful Georgian and Victorian architecture of the town. However, in 2006 the club's Pavilion was destroyed in an arson attack. Fixtures for the season were in place, pre-season practice was completed, the days were getting longer, the sides for the first matches were selected and the pitches were cut. Everything was in place – but at around 3am on 14 April, "Good Friday", and the day before the first game of the season, an alarm was raised – vandals had broken into the pavilion and set fire to it. Unfortunately, though a beautiful old structure designed to fit into the surroundings, the structure was 130 years old and made out of wood. Despite the best efforts of the fire services, the building was completely wrecked. Changing, showering, cooking and bar facilities, not to mention somewhere to hide from the rain, the very heart of the club had been taken away in just a couple of hours. The match the next day (15 April) had to be cancelled.