It's only been seven days dear reader since my last column but I can confirm I have checked another thing off my ‘By eck, isn’t he growing up’ list.

Luckily for you it isn’t hair sprouting out of my ears (it can’t be far away) or that constant feeling of being tired (surely only minutes away).

It is using the phrase ‘mindless vandalism’.

As a young man I’d see a bit of vandalism and not think twice really. I may think it was stupid but wouldn’t really go much further than saying ‘Oh that’s pointless’.

But these days I’m getting more and more vexed by those idiots who just do things that are, well, mindless. The latest instalment of profound selfishness and stupidity is the halfwits who drove over Meltham Cricket club’s pitch.

A local cricket club isn’t awash with time or money. Meltham, like most, are run by a dedicated band of mostly volunteers who put something into their own local community.

And what happens? One night an idiot (possibly accompanied by other idiots) gets in a car and drives over the cricket field and tears up parts of it.

Frankly I don’t hold much truck with cricket the game but what I do enjoy is the social side of the game.

But even someone who can tell a decent cricket tea at 30 paces can tell you that having a field with great lines pounded into it by a heavy vehicle doesn’t help the game.

Luckily it’s a while until the season starts and let’s hope Meltham can get it into a decent state ahead of the first innings.

But is such brainlessness confined to Huddersfield? And is the phrase ‘mindless vandalism’ only used in an HD postcode. Sadly it seems not.

I searched the phrase on the web and rather depressingly found out that recently thieving morons had stolen a defibrillator from a train station in Kent, a graffiti “artist” called Snutz had sprayed his or her tag on walls, shelters, sheep (OK, maybe not sheep) in a town near Hull and dozens of live-saving buoys had been destroyed on the River Avon near Bath.

All to what end? Absolutely none.

The world is a rubbish enough place most of the time without these specimens making it that bit more depressing.

But during my internet search I found a man accused of mindless vandalism that makes all of the above pale into insignificance.

A man is currently on trial in Ireland for vandalising paintings. Not your common or garden daubing. Not even one worth a few bob.

It was a Monet worth £10m. He denies it. I’m not surprised.

But it’s not just Europe. There are fools everywhere. In a primary school in Perth, Australia yobs broke in and poured paint over chicks, killing the baby poultry that youngsters looked after.

In an upside, the Australian bobbies sound a bit less mealymouthed than the police press releases we endure over here; on their Facebook page they said some “mindless idiots” had broken in. Quite.

Anyway back in the UK it seems like there is a tidal wave of this behaviour. It seems that nary a day passes without a bus shelter being smashed, a statue being broken, a sports clubhouse being set fire to.

I could go on but I don’t see the point. It’s all rather infuriating.

And my first question is “Who is doing all this?”

I don’t mean names and addresses but rather the ages of the people.

For instance the idiocy in Meltham wasn’t done by a child - they must be aged at least 17 to even be driving.

Lots of these attacks seem to happen in the middle of the night - so little Timmy or Emily would be safely tucked up.

I can only conclude that mindless vandalism, once the preserve of the schoolchild, is now the preserve of the late teen-early 20s person.

I hope that’s the case because if you’re 30 and doing this sort of rubbish then you’ve really got a screw loose.

We as a community need to identify and deal with these people - I don’t mean pitchforks and burning torches, but rather get them before the courts and appropriate punishments.

I want them cleaning up their mess, paying for the damage and known in the community for their idiotic actions.

Maybe the sheer power of shame is the only way to end the rise of the idiot.