WORCESTERSHIRE FLOODING SHOWS THE URGENCY IN SPORT'S CRUCIAL FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

Nowhere is the impact of climate change on British sport more obvious than in Worcester.

Worcestershire Cricket Club’s ground at New Road has staged Championship cricket since 1899, but its status is now under serious threat. Flooding from the River Severn is nothing new to the site, which is situated on a natural flood plain, and the ground staff have become experts in resilience and clean-up jobs, yet what they are currently experiencing is unprecedented.

New Road was flooded eight times over the off-season, putting some areas of the outfield under nine feet of water. The County Championship has started, but not at New Road: Worcestershire’s triumphant first season back in Division One for six years began at Kidderminster, 15 miles up the road.

So while the five-strong team of ground staff are busy preparing the wicket at Kidderminster, they are also tasked with the most difficult clean-up operation they’ve faced at their true home. They are working against the clock, too, with the first match scheduled for May 19, when the Central Sparks host the Sunrisers in the Charlotte Edwards Cup. Five days after that, Worcestershire are hoping to host Nottinghamshire on the same ground.

Everyone connected to the club is well aware that heavy rainfall between now and then could scupper those plans – and that is why the club have been forced to consider finding a new home. In a statement from the board last week, Worcestershire said an “unprecedented record volume of flooding” had presented “very real issues regarding the sustainability of the club”.

It is a desperately sad situation, but one that has become increasingly inevitable. Speaking to Mirror Sport on Earth Day, chief executive Ashley Giles cites a stark statistic: Of the 30 highest floods at the ground since 1899, 19 of them have come in the last 24 years.

Worcestershire made just £13,340 in profits in the last financial year. They simply cannot afford to shoulder the costs associated with increasingly regular flooding. “I get the sense that many of the members I speak to have been living with this situation for years and probably can now see that we’re reaching a breaking point,” Giles says.

“And to be honest, we’re a relatively small business and we can’t go on with huge costs for moving [infrastructure between grounds] or huge losses in revenue. If we had another flood now and missed home T20 games, that is basically business-threatening. As the chief executive, I have to bear that in mind and my main responsibility is the sustainability of the club.”

Worcestershire are exploring two options: moving to a new site and starting from scratch, or building flood defences. Both are expensive, but one is more risky than the other. “We will investigate the options,” Giles says. “So as ridiculous as this may sound, is there a solution where we can build a bund or a wall which stops the flooding? We don’t know.

“We could spend millions on building a flood defence for the ground, but what does that do for everyone else? It’s a natural flood plain and the argument from other citizens of Worcester would be, ‘Why are you doing that for a cricket ground but you’re not protecting my home?’ We’ve got to be sensitive to that as well.

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“My fear is that if mitigation was possible it’s almost like whatever mitigation can be done and is being done, the overall situation is still getting worse. That’s what the Environment Agency is telling us. So what we’ve got to be careful of is not throwing good money after bad. That is definitely a risk in this circumstance.”

Worcestershire’s situation sounds extreme but is becoming more normalised across the country. A study by Rapid Transition Alliance in 2020 found that by 2050, a quarter of UK football grounds will be at risk of flooding every season, with Chelsea, Fulham, West Ham, Southampton, QPR and Middlesbrough among those most at risk.

“What's happening at New Road is horrifying, but it's unfortunately not a unique example of how climate change is already impacting sport in the UK,” explains Barney Weston, co-director of Football For Future. “You don't have to look ahead to 2050. The FA estimates that 120,000 grassroots football matches are cancelled every season due to inadequate pitches.

“In a year when five major storms have inevitably increased this figure, the FA have just had to announce an extension to the Northern League season – and are in public disagreement with the Cornish FA about an extension. Whitby Town, in tier seven of the football pyramid, have estimated they lost £12,000 in a month due to a series of called-off games.

Tadcaster Albion (tier nine) had five cancellations this season as of January this year. Carlisle United sustained almost £3m in financial costs from Storm Desmond in 2015, and have had an unfunded insurance gap ever since. Even at the top of the game, Chelsea vs Liverpool in the WSL was cancelled last season after Kingsmeadow froze over. The list of examples are endless.”

The problems climate change causes for sport in this country are myriad and unfortunately, there isn’t an easy fix. The hope is that situations like that at Worcestershire will ram home the importance of action. Doing nothing will only speed up the demise of sport, from the grassroots up to the elite level.

2024-04-22T11:42:25Z dg43tfdfdgfd