THIEVES who broke into two cars at Newton Abbot's Recreational Trust on Friday, made off with specialist sports equipment worth more than £1,000 and caused damage in excess of £3,000.

One of the cars belonged to the trust's tennis coach, Madeline Ramsey, who returned to her Vauxhall Tigra at 7am the following morning to find it vandalised and her essential coaching equipment stolen.

'It was a really messy job.' said Madeline, who has been coaching at the club for six years.

'They broke the windows, forced the door lock and used a screwdriver to try and open the boot. It's in the garage at the moment and will probably cost about £3,000 to repair. Unfortunately, they also took the car documents so I can't get the work done.

'This is the fourth time this has happened. I would normally leave my things in the club overnight, but for some reason I left them in the car that night. It is just my luck that it happened to be the night when the thieves broke into it.'

Among the equipment stolen, were a number of specialised racquets, worth up to £190 each, which Madeline says will be of little use to the thieves and probably be sold off for 'peanuts'.

'My biggest concern, though,' continued Madeline, 'is that I was looking after my students racquets and they were stolen too. They had saved up really hard to buy them and they are all quite upset. I feel really bad.

'The fact that they stole the stereo as well is a bit of a farce because it can't be used without the remote control which I still have. So that will just be slung in a hedge or something.

'I don't think I can claim what was stolen back on the car insurance because they only cover contents up to £100. I will have to try and get it on my house insurance.'

Madeline has been able to continue coaching using spare racquets from the club.

The equipment stolen included: a Wilson Hyper Hammer 4.3 racquet; a Major DTi Exforce racquet and a Pro Kennex Destiny Titanium racquet. The students' racquets were a Major Technofibre in red and white with a pink grip; two Wilson 23in and two Wilson 25in models.

A Major Technofibre sports bag, was also taken.

Sports shoes, a CD player and three CDs were also taken from a Peugeot 205 car parked at the same location on the same night.