ANGRY footballers have offered a £1,000 reward to help catch an arsonist who destroyed their village clubhouse.

The building, at Monk Fryston, was gutted in a blaze early yesterday that took firefighters two-and-a-half hours to bring under control.

The latest attack comes nine months after the club changing rooms were destroyed in a fire, which caused around £11,000 damage.

Club chairman Andy Stuart said a £1,000 reward was being offered in an attempt to catch the arsonist responsible for yesterday's attack.

Mr Stuart added he wanted widespread publicity for the reward, in the hope this would lead to more information coming forward.

He said: "We need as many people as possible to know about this so we can catch whoever it was."

Arsonist Martin Steven Pattison pleaded guilty in June to the January attack. He is awaiting sentencing while psychiatric reports are prepared.

Mr Stuart said the children at the club have been left devastated after the second blaze.

He said: "We just cannot believe it.

"We managed to salvage something in January, but this time it has literally been flattened.

"Last time loads of us got together to make the club useable until we could get the money together to move away from such an isolated spot and into the village.

"But now we cannot even get the kids training because the power for the floodlights has been burnt out."

Devastated children arrived at the club for their Sunday morning match to discover the blaze had destroyed the clubhouse.

Mr Stuart said: "If you could have seen the kids when they got there - they must wonder what someone has got against them."

Firefighters from Selby and Tadcaster tackled the blaze, which completely destroyed 75 percent of the clubhouse and caused severe smoke damage to the bits of the building left.

They used cutting equipment to hack through a reinforced steel container, which was also alight inside the building.

Leading firefighter James Winder from Selby Fire Station said: "We believe there are suspicious circumstances due to the time of the fire and the fact that it was well alight when we got there."

Detective Sergeant Steve Taylor and Detective Constable Simon Dixon, from Selby CID, are now leading the investigation into the blaze. Anyone with information is asked to contact them on 01904 669612.

Updated: 16:23 Monday, October 15, 2001