The Spin | ‘Deep, minging, unpleasant’: cricket’s flooding problem is getting worse
ECB has been in touch with 27 clubs so far this storm season as the climate crisis bites.What can game do to stay afloat?The water started flowing into the New Road practice area at about 4pm on Monday afternoon, and just kept on rolling.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.For the benefit of Spin readers 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 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, the worst year to date, when storms Desmond and Eva blew in and more than 60 clubs were significantly affected, but he’s not making any assumptions.In December, the Environment Agency published its updated picture of current and future flood and coastal erosion risk in England.It isn’t a pretty read.Climate projections suggest one in four of all homes will be at risk by 2050, along with 46% of the road network, 54% of the railway network, 34% of water pumping stations and 18% of agricultural land.
Cricket clubs do not have a magic escape route.A third of recreational clubs are now at risk of flooding, and that number is likely to rise in tune with everything else.Ross on Wye CC are one example.The club are on a flood plain – and historically would have expected to flood once every four to five years.They’ve been under water three times since September – a combination of volume of water and blocked drainage culverts (about which they are in dispute with the council).
The ECB has emergency funding available for those who need it (contact facilities@ecb.co.uk) but the most important thing, Musson urges, is for clubs to register for flood alerts and to make a flood plan.“The key is to identify risk, create a plan, and work out what actions you will take in the event of a flood and who might take those actions.This might be as simple as moving expensive equipment to a safer place at the end of the season, to longer term projects like sandbagging and flood-proofing buildings.
”Flood proofing is often very expensive and difficult to carry out, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.In many cases, although a club’s building may not be at risk, the pitch is, and Musson stresses the importance of maintaining culverts and drains so that water can escape.“Often the key is how quickly the water recedes and if there is appropriate drainage and if it is working properly.”Outside emergency funding, clubs can also apply for flood resilience and protection money through the ECB’s County Grant Funds under the Tackling Climate Change theme.“The impact of climate change affects every club,” says Musson.
“Flooding will be the biggest risk to certain clubs in certain parts of the country, but other clubs in other parts of the country are more at risk of drought, and we have even had clubs flooded in areas where a drought order is in place,Essentially, climate change and weather related climactic events can affect clubs in very different ways but across water use, drought risk, flood risk and energy (including carbon reduction) everyone is impacted,”Corbridge CC, on the banks of the Tyne, were one of those clubs hit by Storm Desmond, the ground inundated with six feet of water after the river rose 24 feet in 20 hours,Their clubhouse was destroyed and they rebuilt two separate buildings: a changing room made out of breeze block and concrete, which is easy to swill out, with electric sockets lifted more than a metre up the walls, and a separate social pavilion that is raised up off the ground,It is a lovely building, and its elevated height makes it fantastic to watch cricket from, but it was hard graft and an expensive business, with funding from the ECB, Northumberland county council, insurance, charitable trusts and private donations.
Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionAnd, as Musson is evangelical in pointing out, planning is the cheapest thing you can do, as is making sure you are insured, though that is becoming harder as insurers become more canny about flood risk.In those cases, Musson says, “then it becomes all about how you build resilience and weather the experience of flooding.And Worcester is the prime example of that.”Back then to Manfield and his wellington boots and smelly water.“It’s just disheartening that it is here again,” he says, as he gives a video tour of the flood, “but it is my lot in life now, I think I should grow flippers.
”This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin.To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Former Brexit negotiator Oliver Robbins becomes top Foreign Office civil servant
The former Brexit negotiator Oliver Robbins has been appointed as the UK Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant, taking over from Sir Philip Barton.Robbins, who was on the shortlist last year to take over as cabinet secretary but failed to get the civil service’s top job, was believed to be David Lammy’s favoured candidate for the role of permanent undersecretary in the Foreign Office (FCDO).Although Robbins left the civil service in 2019, he has years of experience in international affairs and national security, which will help him navigate a complex global landscape, with the return of Donald Trump to the White House and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.Confirming the appointment, Lammy said: “I have set out from day one that I want to rewire the FCDO to act as the international delivery arm of this government’s missions, as well as devising our broader international strategy. Olly Robbins is exactly the person to help me deliver this and I am delighted to welcome him into the FCDO
Tory and Reform MPs accused of ‘weaponising trauma’ of grooming victims, as Farage calls for inquiry to focus on Pakistani men – as it happened
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK, told MPs that that a new inquiry was needed specifically into the involvement of British Pakistanis in rape gangs.Speaking in the debate on the children’s wellbeing and schools bill, he claimed that, for the past 20 years, “at every attempt to try and have a proper national debate on the scale of this problem, it has been shut down”.He said that Keir Starmer has stressed the fact that an inquiry has already taken place. But grooming gangs were not mentioned once in the 459-page report from the independent inquiry in child sexual abuse, he said, and Rotherham was only mentioned once.That inquiry was so wide-ranging it was like a shotgun, he said
Letter: John Prescott obituary
When the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999, John Prescott had a raft of responsibilities, including devolution and transport. One scheme under application at the time was the Welsh Highland Railway, running for 25 miles from Caernarfon to Porthmadog – an initiative of the Ffestiniog Railway.The National Assembly came into being on 1 July. The various powers devolved to it came into effect and replaced the Westminster authority and procedures.Some people in Eryri (Snowdonia) were strongly opposed to the Welsh Highland Railway
Kemi Badenoch tells Tories: don’t expect big policy plans for two years
Kemi Badenoch has told her shadow cabinet not to expect any big Conservative policy announcements for the next two years.At a meeting with shadow ministers on Tuesday, the Tory leader said she would not announce any detailed policies until at least 2027 because the focus until then should be regaining voters’ trust.The Sun, which first reported the development, said Badenoch presented MPs with a three-year programme for turning around her party’s fortunes under which it would not set out its plans for government before the end of 2027.A Conservative spokesperson said on Wednesday: “What you can see is, as we did with the immigration announcement last month, is that we will show you our direction of travel.“So we said that we will have a strict numerical cap [on immigration], we said that we’ll have a restriction on visas, but we’re not setting out the fine details of those because we’re not creating policies for 2028 in 2025
Starmer attacks Badenoch over call for new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs
Keir Starmer has accused Kemi Badenoch of “bandwagon jumping” in calling for a new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs, as he condemned the Conservative leader for her plan to try to vote down a bill on children’s wellbeing.In sometimes bitter exchanges at prime minister’s questions, as the topic of grooming gangs continued to dominate the political agenda, Starmer accused Badenoch of only taking an interest in the subject after Elon Musk repeatedly tweeted about it.“She met her recently acquired view that it’s a scandal, having spent a lot of time on social media over Christmas,” the prime minister told the Conservative leader. “Not once in eight years did she stand here and say what she just said.”Starmer accused Badenoch, who had said resisting a new inquiry would spark speculation about a “cover-up” in government, of being more interested in “tweeting and talking” than taking action on behalf of victims
Jenrick shape-shifts on air with reality-bending Today interview | John Crace
You can tell that Elon Musk must have overstepped the mark when even Kemi Badenoch has taken a break from tweeting her support for the ketamine-riddled world’s richest man. The Tory leader’s reality is largely shaped by what she reads on social media, so unless she’s taken time out to help the Muskster find a drug counsellor, she’s decided that she’d be better off keeping quiet for a while. Quite the concession for a politician who never knowingly avoids the chance to make a bad situation worse.But you can always rely on Robert Jenrick to step into any vacuum. It’s hard to know who the real Honest Bob really is
Does UK need another national inquiry into rape and sexual abuse gangs?
The care taskforce needs boldness, not buzzwords | Letters
Tell us how you have been affected by the winter flu crisis in England
‘Get this done’: Andrew Dilnot attacks three-year plan for English social care
What is driving the winter flu crisis in England?
Tories’ push for new grooming inquiry would ‘kill’ child safety bill, says Phillipson