A County Durham rugby club has been left ‘heartbroken’ after floods wrecked its pitches, shutting down all events for the foreseeable future and sparking an urgent appeal for cash.
Bishop Auckland Rugby Club grounds were left submerged after the River Wear burst its banks on Thursday, throwing the clubs packed schedule into chaos during the height of the playing season.
Gareth John, 41, junior chair of the club for ten years, said the committee are “absolutely gutted” after the floods brought all scheduled sessions over the next few weeks to a standstill.
He added: “We train every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with hundreds of children taking part, alongside senior sessions during the week. This weekend we had fixtures for both our men’s and women’s teams, plus a home game on Sunday - all of which we’ve had to cancel.
“Our junior section has around 400 members, and we’ve had to find alternative venues at other clubs to keep them playing.
“We’ve even had to move the County Cup fixture off-site. As you can imagine, the disruption has been huge for everyone involved.”
Mr John said the flooding will have a detrimental impact on the club and expects them to lose thousands of pounds in revenue.
He said: “If we're off site now for the next three weeks, that’s a lot of revenue we can’t afford to lose.
“It’s the heartache for ourselves, as the committee is trying to keep the place running and financially viable, but when we get hit like this, it means we've got to spend money we haven’t got on pitch maintenance.
“It’s not just about beer sales - it’s the footfall for the club as well. We were lucky the clubhouse hasn’t been hit, but it means we now lose out on people coming. Especially at this time of the year with Christmas, everyone is tight for money, so we will feel the impact even more.”
After Storm Cierra hit in 2020, the committee raised £7,000 to restore the facilities, but spent more than £10,000 in total in repairs.
Mr John said: “Back in 2020, the flooding happened in the March and our season ends in May, so we only had six weeks to worry about games and getting the place ready.
“But at the moment we're mid-season, so we’ve got to figure out how to get it back up and running as quickly as possible and maintain it for the six months of playing time.
“If flooding happened every year, I think you could stomach it, but when you get these freak occurrences like last night, its heartbreaking to see what we've built up and knowing it takes just one episode to damage the club in such a detrimental way.”
On Thursday (November 13), the committee said they have launched a fundraiser to raise £15,000 to keep the club afloat.
Steven Jones, club general manager said: "As most are aware, the clubs facilities suffered serious effects from the recent flooding caused by the heavy and consistent downpour throughout Friday. This downpour caused the adjacent river to burst its banks and completely submerge the playing fields in water.
"Thankfully, the water was contained to the fields and did not reach the main building which could have been catastrophic. On inspection this morning, the river has returned to its banks and the water is draining as well as can be expected however leaving a significant amount of debris behind. This debris makes all pitches unsafe for play at this current time.
"The weather warning for rain remains in place until Saturday and we will closely monitor the situation until then. We will then proceed to plan a clean-up operation to return the fields to a safe state that will require as many of our amazing members, volunteers and rugby family to spare a couple of hours to support this. "
The committee has thanked chairs of other rugby clubs who have offered their pitches to the team.
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The fundraiser has urged anyone able to, to donate - Fundraiser by Gwyn Evans : Our rugby club is underwater
It reads: "We’re raising £15,000 to cover:
"Getting our kids back training (pitch hire and transport)
"Clean-up and pitch restoration once the water recedes
"Replacing damaged equipment and repairing facilities
"Every pound gets us closer to getting the kids back on the field. If you can help or share this, we won’t forget it.
"We’re not going anywhere. But we need your help to stay."
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