A COUPLE lost their battle to stop the noise of bouncing basketballs coming from a village recreation ground near their home.

Susan and James May said their lives had been made a misery by shouting teenagers using the games area near their £1.5-million cottage in Ticehurst, north of Robertsbridge.

Mr May, 60, and his 58-year-old wife kept diaries of noise coming from the facility, which opened in 2005 and includes basketball and mini football pitches as well as a cycling area.

They have been "living on tenterhooks" ever since it opened and felt unable to sit in their garden.

They sued the owners of the recreation ground, claiming noise nuisance, but Judge Simon Coltart said they were being obsessive and over-sensitive to the noise.

After going a step further to the Court of Appeal, insisting they had been denied a fair hearing, Lord Justice Vos ruled against them.

He said the noise heard from their garden was reasonable to put up with in the neighbourhood.