Footballs over our fence

[thekingfisher]

This may very well out me - but well I'm feeling so irritated I don't really care!

Our house sides onto a village football pitch. When we bought the house circa 5 yrs ago the vendors told us there was a match maybe once per month. The reality was that at least one football match is held most sundays for the entire football season. This was fine until 18 months ago we bought a further piece of land at the back of our house which we incorporated into our garden. This means our garden and house plot now runs the entire length of the pitch.

There is a gate right at the very end of the piece of land which we bought which historically was used by the football team and unlocked by the farmer each sunday morning for them to retrieve their balls. The land was unused agricultural land (i.e. old orchard and asparagus field not farmed anymore and mostly weeds) so this didn't really have a bearing on us - plus we had a large boundary hedge which separated us from this piece of land.

Since we bought it we have spent considerable sums of money( i.e. many thousands) opening it into our garden, taking down and replanting hedging, cultivating the lawn, revitalising the orchard etc etc. so it is now very clearly part of our plot.

However we now have footballs coming over into this field often 5 or 6 times every sunday morning. As our entire ground floor is most glass and open plan this means anyone coming into the garden or the land at the back has an open view into our house.

I asked the football manager to knock before coming over - this morning he knocked and asked me to get the balls ( 3 had been kicked over) I said i can but not yet as I was still in my PJ's and it was peeing down. He asked if he could and I said yes. 20 monists later a spectator ( young lad who I know) came round and asked to get a ball - again I said yes. However it then transpired he let himself out of the top gate ( which should have been locked) and then let himself back in two more times to fetch other balls - meantime I'm pottering around in my kitchen when I just see someone wandering around the garden.

Would IBU to basically say that they can only come and get balls at end of the match ( or half time if they're a bit crap and kick too many over)? The Manager said they only had 3 balls - so would I be additionally unreasonable to tell him to buy more so they don't need to come around every 2 mins or just let themselves in ( or worse still climb over the wire fence which incenses me as it bends and its about 6 ft tall. ).

It feels like every sunday morning we are invaded and I have been caught wandering around in my underwear which again I don't think is fair.

Surely footballs should stay on the pitch? Half a dozen balls over the hence in one match smacks of dreadfully poor skills to me.

The pitch and changing room is rented out at a loss.

Probably a bigger loss otherwise. Keeping a regularly used football pitch in good condition costs money. Lots of it. And it's really shit for the kid who plays goalkeeper on an unmaintained pitch.

Get rid of the gate. Get a dog that likes to puncture footballs.

All dogs puncture footballs don't they? Well they do around here.

The pitch has always been there so the OP does need to compromise, however the footballers also need to compromise. They may have in the past been able to come and go as they pleased but they can't now.

No. One of my dogs will puncture a ball immediately, but my other dog would happily play with a football without puncturing it.

Yes, the pitch has always been there, and the OP is not objecting to them using the pitch. She's objecting to them using her garden as an extension to that pitch.

Why does she "need to" compromise? Is it even locals using it?

DB's dog only likes punctured footballs.

If the Op removes the gate the dog will presumably be able to run loose on the pitch which is not a good idea.
Before DS's team plays someone has to go round on dog poo patrol with the 'poo shovel'

I don't mean remove the gate and leave a gap - put a fence up instead.

Sod the football match. You bought some land and are entitled to think you will not have to make access available constantly for people who have no right to put their footballs in your garden and no rift to expect to come in and collect them.

I would put up some netting ( the sort of thing that golf clubs use to shield balls going into gardens or put up a sign saying that damages will be expected to be paid for)

You could have a baby in the garden on Sunday morning and it's not fair for them to be so reckless that they risk hurting someone.

At the very least I wouldn't be going out of my way to make life easier for them. I would return the balls once a week maybe but wouldn't be in any hurry to do it when they need you to.

A dog is for life, not just Sundays!

Although with a garden that length, maybe the OP would only run into it on Sundays?

I would just ask them to get more balls and offer that you will chuck them back over at half time and the end of the match.

Any way some netting or higher fencing can be put up? How high is the fence currently.

I can see it's annoying but the football team are used to agreement they had in place with previous land owner. You need to talk to them and see what compromise you and they can come up with. It could be the person who sold the land to you told them you were happy for the arrangement to continue.

And wtf is the point of a park with a sign saying no ball games?!! When we were kids there was a green near my grandparents we all used to play on. My grandad made us a wee bat and we played short cricket etc with a tennis ball. Anyway clearly some residents moaned and a sign was put up saying no ball games. My grandad took it down!

Haha at the op needing to compromise!!!!!!

The pitch has always been next to a house, do the team need to compromise if the family in that house want to use the football pitch for bbqs on Sundays mornings???

The pitch is the pitch, separate to the ops garden and footballers have no right to anything to do with the garden

The cricket pitch in our village has enormous nets strung up along the side so that they balls can't go into neighbouring gardens - something like that could surely be done to reduce the effect (I realise footballs are heavy, but a cricket ball isn't exactly a trifling thing to hit a net with either)

Yes chunky pitches near us have netting like that.

Legally no the op doesn't need to compromise but for the sake of good neighbourly relations offering to chuck the balls back over at half time or the end of the match would be nice and means no one need go in her garden.

We live next door to our village recreation field with 2 pitches. We're about to cut down the wall of lleylandii that separates us from the view and open space. Am I going to spend the next years fishing balls out of the hedges?

Our old next door neighbours' kids used to spend hours after school everyday knocking balls into our garden. Just before bed they'd come and retrieve 8 balls in one go. It did actually drive me bonkers as they sailed over and landed in the flowerbeds!

We ended up going away on holiday and when we got back I took them all round in a bin bag (20 or so footballs). Their Dad looked rather shame-facedly at me and the next day they'd moved the goalposts so they kicked up and down the garden rather than across.

5madthings the point of our "no ball games park" is that it has play equipment for the under 8s, and the idea is they can play on it without getting whacked by stray footballs. (Although once I caught a father and son riding their quad bikes round the equipment...despair!)

End of match only - and warn them that if you happen to be out they can't retrieve them until the next Sunday. And mean it.

OP is BU
The pitch was there in the first place, and OP has made lots of changes which open up her house more (not that I can see a problem with anyone looking at the outside of my house, even if they did want to).
The easy solution was there - that they nip through and retrieve the ball when it comes over, a gate that is just unlocked for this purpose while the match is on. Then the OP then starts to try to insist they knock and inconvenience her but then doesn't like being inconvenienced
Just let them get the balls, as they come over, by nipping through the gate as has always been the case - it needn't disturb you at all unless you like to sit in the nude on your patio through the WInter.

I live in a village and often it is a compromise. That can be difficult but is also what makes village life so special.

IME people who don't want to compromise are often not suited to village life

Last summer balls came over into my garden a lot from children playing on the cul de sac (we have a large marked out play area on grass for them to play on but parents like them to play on the cul de sac where they can see them)
My rear fence is totally bent inwards from balls being kicked against it. The balls would come over the fence (a high 5ft fence) and hit our windows.
then children would bang on the front door wanting the ball back or come into the garden and cause more damage running in for balls.
I'm now taking a firmer line - the back gate is now locked and I'm not answering the door for children knocking for their ball back. It sounds mean but when you come in from work and dinner is interrupted by children constantly knocking on the door it is exhausting and I am taking a tougher line this summer.

I think that's fair enough Owl, but totally different to the OP's problem IYKWIM. It's a cul de sac rather than a proper football pitch with league games etc...

Village life sounds exhausting and stressful. They never mention any of this on Escape to the Country do they?