Storm Bert has caused millions of pounds worth of damage across Wales from people’s homes to businesses, with hundreds of people facing uncertain futures. On top of residential and businesses being ravaged, we’re here in Malpas Cricket Club, where they think they could be facing thousands in damages.
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00:00But the problems we found at Marlborough Squiricular was that the amount of rain that we had resulted
00:07in the brook behind me overflowing. It literally took all of our outfield out, so we're probably
00:15in about two to maybe three feet of water.
00:17Marlborough has growing women's and girls teams, and unfortunately it's the facilities
00:21recently built for those newer teams which have been the worst affected in the clubhouse.
00:26So unfortunately with the rainfall and the sewers overflowing it resulted in all of that
00:32stuff coming through into the ladies' toilet. So we've managed to clean it up now, however
00:39what we don't know is the extent of the damage yet, and worryingly it's fairly new surfaces
00:44there and it puts our ladies' team back a fair bit as a result.
00:50It might not look like it now with some time past, but the field in Marlborough was completely
00:54underwater when the storm hit, and the damage to the field, especially some of the artificial
00:58training and playing surfaces, is particularly concerning for Riaz, who says that they've
01:03spent tens of thousands of pounds on some of their equipment and the club aren't fully
01:07aware of the extent of the damage.
01:10When we had those built they cost about £60,000 at the time, so that's a three bay net with
01:15artificial surface. But more worryingly for me is on the cricket pitch you'll see there's
01:21an artificial wicket which all of the juniors play on, it's what we use it for our under
01:267s, under 9s, under 11s, under 13s, but also our ladies' cricket. When we installed that
01:3213 years ago, yeah that cost about £15,000, so I'm hoping it's not to those levels, right,
01:38but it's only once it gets dry enough out there for us to be able to go out and properly
01:43assess it to know the extent of that damage.
01:46Melbourne's cricket club is over a century old, and this is one of the worst disasters
01:49the club has faced. Riaz says he hopes the local community can come together to help
01:54the club out of their situation and continue to do what they love.
01:59Local community clubs like ourselves, yeah, potentially could cease doing what their whole
02:04purpose is, which is to provide facilities for our community to be able to play a sport
02:09that they love, and that's the risk that we've got at the moment, and we're going to do everything
02:13we can at this cricket club to ensure that we've been here for 109 years and we're going
02:18to be here for another 109.
02:19It isn't just Melbourne's cricket club who've been affected by Storm Burt, there are clubs
02:23all over the country who've suffered hardships, and just a few miles around from Melbourne's
02:28cricket club, Albion Rovers Football Club and Newport High School Old Boys Rugby Club
02:33have also suffered as a result. He hopes that all of the clubs will see the light at the
02:36end of the tunnel and avoid local sport clubs falling apart as a result.
02:42What I've been trying to do is appeal to all of our local community here to come together,
02:47rally with us, and just make sure that clubs like Malpas, clubs like Albion and Newport
02:52High School Boys, they can be saved from this sort of disaster that we've occurred.