Keswick’s volunteer army rally to battle flooding

A NUMBER of clubs in Cumbria had their plans thrown up in the air this week with one suffering heavy flood damage after a near record amount of rainfall within 24 hours.

A month’s worth of rain and rising water levels saw Keswick RFC’s pitch and clubhouse suffer as much as four inches of standing water on Thursday – only slowing due to firefighters dredging the ground for more than six hours.

The Lake District club was one of a number of sites that suffered in the region with more than 12 inches of rain falling over Wednesday and Thursday.

Keswick had to move yesterday’s home tie against Southport in North 2 West to nearby Penrith.

However a “monumental effort” by volunteers means they are hopeful they will be able to host fixtures as early as next weekend.

Allan Lambert, club chairman, said: “We have had a heavy amount of rainfall in a short period of time and that has been very damaging but it’s not as bad as Storm Desmond in 2015.

“We’ve had more than 25 club volunteers down here for a few days moving furnishings, machinery and equipment alongside the firefighters to help. It shows the community spirit we pride ourselves on.

“It’s been labour intensive but due to Storm Desmond we’ve got plans in place for this scenario. We’re lucky this time it flooded from Derwent water rather than River Greta, which would have been much worse.”

Several games in the region, including Kendal, Creighton and Wigton, were cancelled after their grounds were all deemed unplayable.

Egremont’s game against Whitehaven was swapped to Whitehaven.

An RFU spokesman said “work in the North from previous years is paying dividends by significantly reducing the possibility or impact of flooding ” and its facilities team had been in contact with all clubs in the region to check, issuing advice and encouraging clubs to remain in proactive contact.