CARLISE UTD GROUNDSMAN HAILED
National press coverage for flooding turnaround
Carlise United's Brunton Park pitch was victim to severe flooding last week after the River Peterill broke its banks.
Carlise's pitch last Monday morning - pic: Caters
Footage was widely shared on social media of the pitch seemingly utterly submerged in large areas. There were six to twleve inches of water at the worst effected areas towards the (aptly named) Waterworks End.
And 24 hours after the flood set in there was an FA Youth Cup match against Doncaster schuled to be played. However Head Groundsman Dave Mitchell and his assistants, Matt Henry and Paul Butler, managed to acheive what few would've believed having seen the pictures on Monday last week, and got the surface playable in time for Tuesday's match to go ahead.
In some great coverage in The Mirror last week, Dave was quoted as saying, "We were in the lap of the gods – you can only clear the pitch of water at a gallon a second if it’s not filling up even faster.“Fortunately, we borrowed an industrial pump from a local supplier and within a couple of hours you could see the tide was starting to go out again. “The pitch was a bit discoloured, and there are bits of riverbed we will need to clean out later, but it’s not often you can turn a boating lake into a putting green overnight. “It was a good challenge, and we were shattered afterwards, but the weather rarely gives groundsmen any respite.”
|
