“Not so much welly boots, it’s swimming costumes!”, Writes by Josh Neicho.
Sports clubs along the River Severn in Bewdley and Stourport are recalling the damage and disruption they have suffered from flooding, in connection with a national campaign to draw attention to the impact of extreme weather on sport.
The Save Our Grassroots campaign, with supporters including Gary Lineker, former Arsenal and Villa star Paul Merson, rower Helen Glover and naturalist Steve Backshall has staged matches in wellies around the UK and encouraged people to write to their MPs to highlight the plight of grassroots sport and public green spaces.
Stourport Swifts FC’s ground at Walshes Meadow has flooded every January or early February since 2020 until this year, when it narrowly escaped. On each occasion, around three or four games have had to be postponed, at a four-figure financial cost to the club.
“We seem to be getting the same as everywhere I am sure – in the winter less frost, cold and snow, and more storms and rain,” says Ian Johnson from the club.
“I think also that with flood barriers installed just upriver in Bewdley to protect nearby housing, the extra volume is just diverted down river to Stourport,” he adds.
“We have some sort of plan in place now when we know it is coming, with pumps and sandbags which we put in the changing rooms in the cellar. We have managed so far to keep the water out of the clubhouse, which is fortunately just a little bit higher. But the changing rooms and beer cellar have always been affected”.
Johnson says the visibility Paul Merson has given the issue, joining a ‘welly match’ on Hackney Marshes last week, is “fantastic – the more people that are aware, the better”.
Chair of Bewdley Cricket Club Rob Combes says that the outfield of the ground flooded in October 2019, February 2020, February 2022, January 2023 and January this year.
Combes has noticed an increase since about 2010 both in the frequency of flood incidents and the height the water rises to. He worries that the clubhouse will be breached in the relatively near future, as the water reaches the patio during floods.
When the pitch floods, “it causes soil compaction we would rather not have,” says Combes. “We spike the ground to get air back in. With a compacted wicket, you don’t get root depth”. End of season renovation work has been ruined by seed and loam being washed away.
The flood waters also impact the club’s nets and artificial surfaces, which are built on aggregate: “it makes the facilities less consistent, the stone isn’t where it should be”.
The England and Wales Cricket Trust has now given Bewdley funds to build new flood-based tarmac-based facilities which Combes says was unexpected and they are “absolutely thrilled about”.
The club has made lots of improvements to its sustainability in the past few years, installing solar panels and a battery system, and this coming weekend [19-20 November] is about to fit an air source heat pump.
On the risk of flooding to sports, Combes says: “We’re not going to turn this around before 2050. Support needs to come so we can deal with the aftermath of flooding or mitigating it. Or we will see a reduction in the number of clubs and people involved in cricket, especially if facilities aren’t seen as good enough”.
At Stourport Rugby Club – also based at Walshes Meadow – Honorary Treasurer Ted Perkins says that when the pitch floods, “it’s not so much welly boots, it’s swimming costumes, and I’m not doing that in February”.
Kidderminster Cricket Club hosted Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s first two fixtures in 2024, after the club’s New Road ground by the Severn in Worcester suffered five separate flood incidents during the winter.
Research by the Rapid Transition Alliance found one in four English Football League grounds could expect partial or total annual flooding by 2050. Separate figures from the British Association for Sustainable Sport published last year show extreme weather has stopped 130,000 cricket overs in the past decade and that 120,000 football games are now lost every season.
14th-20th October, marking the one year anniversary of Storm Babet, is this year’s Flood Action Week. The Environment Agency is urging people to be prepared and setting out a few steps they can take to protect their homes and property from flood risk. Around 5.5 million properties in England are at risk from flooding.
