Football... floody hell
Clubs warn pitches can’t take any more rain
PITCHES across the country are finally drying up – but officials have warned that another deluge could cause chaos as clubs try to reduce a fixtures backlog.
Storm Kathleen earlier this month left outdoor schedules in a sodden heap and closed down golf resorts, football, GAA, rugby clubs and plus tennis courts.
Warm sunshine has helped waterlogged pitches in the past week after the wettest ever March and one of the wettest Aprils.
Scattered showers are expected over the following few days, but Met Eireann has predicted higher than average rainfall for the beginning of May.
Derek Moore, spokesperson for Dublin and District Schoolboys League, yesterday said pitches can’t withstand another “deluge”.
Derek added: “In longer terms, we need more matches on Saturday evenings to help schedules, but that’s difficult due to a need for floodlights and Astro facilities.
“A full-size Astro with floodlights would cost around €600,000.”
Gerry Gorman, regional football expert of Meath and District League, which includes clubs from counties Meath, Cavan, Louth, and Monaghan, said competitions are playing catchup.
WET
Gerry told The Star: “We’re the same as the rest of the country. Even well drained pitches were getting saturated.
“Our competitions were only getting underway when the rain came, so we’re playing catch-up and don’t want any more setbacks.”
Several League of Ireland games were postponed in March after failed pitch inspections.
But games were also postponed in February due to the incessant wet weather.
Grounds staff said playing surfaces were already saturated after March and could not withstand the extra rainfall that came this month.
Met Eireann has now warned that the current dry spell may not last.
The country has endured some of the wettest times in modern recorded history, forcing a litany of match cancellations and a chaotic fixture pile-ups.
Heavy rain blighted games at home and abroad.
When Ireland secured promotion to League A of the Women’s Nations League with a 1-0 win away to Albania last November, the conditions were so bad that skipper Katie Mccabe dubbed it the “wettest game in history”. It was played in torrential rain and thunderstorms, making the waterlogged pitch resemble a lake, according to some fans.
The match was paused at halftime to allow ground staff to clear water from the pitch, which took over an hour.
So many games across Ireland were scrapped at the start of this month that some soccer clubs joked about going back to playing winter football.
Galway GAA club Glinsk jokingly invited local anglers to fish on their pitch when it was left underwater following heavy rain at the start of this month.
Some county teams’ fixtures ended up six weeks behind and conditions were so bad that Louth GAA county board axed all
games for a week. Clubs like Cooley Kickhams GFC in Carlingford had already cancelled training sessions and matches at its grounds, with secretary Brian Rafferty saying he had “never seen anything like” it.
He said: “The rain has just been non-stop. It’s held everything back.”
DANGEROUS
Brian added: “It’s dangerous. And there’s no enjoyment for kids, there’s no enjoyment for spectators, and there’s certainly no enjoyment for players.”
Sean Mcclean, chair of Louth county board, revealed that “most pitches” had to close for a time “across the county”.
It meant that quarter of youth fixtures were cancelled in the opening two weeks of April, a cancellation figure that rose to 36% overall, including senior matches.
In Wexford, parish priest Fr Joseph Power offered up Mass for better weather. He said: “It can’t do any harm and hopefully it will do some good.”
Westmeath U20 hurling coach John Shaw described the situation as a “nightmare” and claimed finances could be needed for more artificial surfaces.
He said: “Ninety per cent of our training was done on Astro.”
“We had very little game time on grass because of the rain.” The last two years have been a disaster.”