THERE cannot be anything more annoying than walking down the street in your best threads, and suddenly stepping in dog mess. It’s even worse if you unknowingly roll around in it…

This is the issue facing cricketers and sportsmen and women at one of Penarth’s most loved athletic fields.

Mark Frost, chairman of Penarth Cricket Club, has made an impassioned plea to dog walkers to keep off the pitch at Penarth Athletic Field so that men, women and children enjoying cricket, football or rounders, do not end up with muck of the worse kind on their perfectly white whites.

And there’s a lot of whites that could be affected by this problem as the club ramps up activities for the coming summer.

Mr Frost has pleaded with dog walkers to control their dogs.

“Walking your dog on a sports pitch is not the right thing to do,” said Mr Frost.

“If you need to run the dog take them to a beach or Cosmeston. This is a place for children to play sport.”

People not clearing up after their dog is such a contentious issue that Mr Frost was invited on BBC’s Dot Davies radio show to lead a debate on how to control the rise in dog poo.

Penarth Times:

Mr Frost, who works for Glamorgan Cricket, said Penarth Cricket Club is exceptionally popular, but people must remember it is run by volunteers who cannot be watching the pitch all the time.

And he raised the issue that even after people attempt to clear up after their dog, sometimes they do not get everything, which is why he has asked people to be more vigilant and keep their pet pooches off the pitch at all times.

“You can walk round the pitch, you do not have to walk over it,” said Mr Frost. “We can’t monitor this ground 24/7.

“And the problem is even when people do pick up after their dogs, they don’t always get everything.”

Penarth Times:

It’s cricket season now and Mr Frost explained the pitches are going to be busy. In fact, the pitch could be in use every day through the coming months, with sides in age categories 11, 13 and 15 as well as four senior sides and a weekend team all using the hallowed turf of Penarth Athletic Field.

“Now, pretty much every night we are going to have cricket going on and that is mostly juniors,” said Mr Frost.

“Think, if you’re a kid who has just taken up the game and you come across dog mess it’s going to put you off that experience.

“Please keep dogs on the lead and if there are boundary lines please do not go over them.

“We need people to co-operate because we cannot do it on our own.”