
*The Port News delivers free breaking news alerts and daily headlines to your inbox. Sign-up via this direct link.
Members of the Port Macquarie Tennis Club have been left "disappointed" after two courts were vandalised over the weekend.
Club manager and coach Greg Alchin believes the incident occurred on Saturday night.
"I was here on Saturday morning and it wasn't there, so it happened sometime before Sunday morning," he said. "It's pretty unfortunate that it's happened."
The vandals have spray painted an obscene image on one of the courts along with a racial slur, tagged one of the light poles with paint, and sprayed one of the net posts.
Mr Alchin said he isn't sure if the paint on the nylon turf can be removed, with the club to speak with the group responsible for the maintenance of the courts.
"I imagine that it's a spray can that they've used and now it's a question of whether we can get that off," he said.

"The courts are nylon [which] has been dyed green and so if you start bleaching it to remove the paint, it will also take the green off and instead of it being black, it will be white and will still be there."
Mr Alchin has been with the club for 16 years and said while they have experienced incidents like this before, this is the worst it has been.
"We've had some graffiti before in the bathrooms and on the gazebo out the back and years ago when we had our old timber gazebos, they got knocked over by vandals," he said.
"It has happened a bit, but not a lot and the graffiti problem around town seems to be happening more regularly now."
The club has insurance, but isn't sure if the company would cover the cost of replacing a court due to graffiti.
"If we can't remove the paint, it will cost about $20,000 to replace the court," Mr Alchin said.
"It's disappointing because it's now the expense of fixing it. It makes you wonder what's driving them to do these things.

"If they [the vandals] have too much energy, maybe they should jump in there and play some tennis."
The club has filed an incident report with Port Macquarie Police.
"I'm not sure whether anything will come from it," Mr Alchin said. "We're looking at the possibility of installing more security cameras."
Mr Alchin said he's in the process of organising a meeting with the committee to look at their options.
"If we're not able to remove the graffiti, then we're going to be left with it," he said.
"It's not ideal for members. The ladies played up there on Monday morning and they're most likely not very happy about it."
IN OTHER NEWS: