FC counts cost of heatwaves' dry pitches

A football club is counting the cost of this summer's heatwaves as it uses sprinklers to revive a brown pitch that it fears could become unplayable - and unsafe.

Wolverhampton Casuals said it believed that without keeping the grass watered, "there's no way" a home game would have been played this Saturday if the fixture schedule had demanded it.

Vice chairman Paul Tudor said other teams had cancelled pre-season friendlies but the Brinsford Lane outfit had moved "domestic sprinklers" around the pitch to preserve fixtures.

The Environment Agency (EA) declared the West Midlands in drought on Wednesday, three days before the club's North West Counties League season starts with an away game.

There are no hosepipe bans currently although the public has been asked to restrict use where possible.

Drought conditions have emerged across England as low rainfall meets higher temperatures, with the combination also raising the risk of wildfires.

Water Minister Emma Hardy has said that as the climate changes, droughts are becoming increasingly common and the "new normal".

Tudor, with an eye on player safety, said the pitch at Brinsford Stadium, within Staffordshire and near Wolverhampton, had been left with a "large portion" of brown, with hard surfaces often dangerous.

"It wouldn't surprise me if games are not played [this weekend] because of the conditions," he said.

In response, the club is using sprinklers "that we move around the pitch, particularly in goalmouths and the centre circle, which are the heavily populated spaces... to get them where we've reseeded".

But that has brought financial pressures, he said.

"Whereas in the winter it was costing us money by not having games and getting spectators through the door, this time round it's costing us money to try and get the pitch playable by getting water on to [it]."

The club starts its First Division South campaign on an artificial pitch at Crewe FC on Saturday afternoon.

At home, however, "we will look to do whatever we can to maintain a grass pitch for as long as we can", Tudor said.

"Yes, there are talks about 3G pitches being the way to go.

"[I'm] not convinced and it's [a matter of] being able to afford them as well."

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