It flooded the entire ground and half the car park, as well as the nearby racecourse, the rowing club and the public footpath – which is now a popular hang-out space for swans. The head groundsman, Stephen Manfield, a man of a remarkably perky disposition, sits on the balcony of the club's sports bar watching the fourth flood of the off-season do its business, the water coming in from the burst banks of the Severn as well as round the back across the fields. He pokes his measuring stick into the water – "four and a half feet in the shallow end", and still rising.
Last off-season New Road was flooded eight times (enough for the chief executive, Ashley Giles, to question the long-term viability of the club), and the 2024-25 winter is tracking in a similar way. Most floods last nine to 10 days, though this is the highest since Worcestershire's end-of-season party in September. Manfield stirs the murky water. "It is deep, it is minging, it is unpleasant, but it is my job and I love it."
Worcestershire CCC are not alone. Dan Musson, the head of facilities planning at the England and Wales Cricket Board, has been in touch with 27 clubs so far this storm season, and he is expecting to hear from many more this week as a result of the new year floods and the subsequent snow fall and melt. It is still some way short of 2015-16 when storms Desmond and Eva blew in and more than 60 clubs were significantly affected, but he's not making any assumptions.
This story is from the January 09, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 09, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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