Counting the cost of flooding at Rase Park
It has been the best of times and the worst of times for Market Rasen cricket and football club.
Just days after putting plans in place to celebrate the club’s golden anniversary, the clubhouse has been closed after flash flooding rushed through the building last week.
While the water went down quite quickly, assessors have said there has been a lot of damage as the water has seeped under the flooring and skirting boards.
And it isn’t just the inside of the building that has suffered the ravages of the water, large craters have appeared in the surrounding car park area.
Despite this, club secretary Eve Bennett is confident they will be back up and running again soon.
She said: “Our aim is to continue with the field sports as much as we can, sport is community and we need that for everyone.
“And we are still planning to hold our T20 Golden Ashes event to mark our 50 years, we just need the weather to be on our side.
“We have Portaloos in place, as the toilets can’t be used, and we are also hoping to get a welfare unit.
“We will bounce back – we always do.”
Eve also has nothing but praise for the club members, businesses and local community who turned out to help on the evening of the flooding and afterwards.
She said: “We are very grateful to Michelle who had her Slimming World group in the clubhouse when the flooding began, as she put our electrical equipment high up.
“We then put a request out for anyone who could get to us safely to come down and help and they did. We got a bit of a chain gang going to get the water out, but there was so much, it was a really a case of just letting it go.
“We were very grateful to George Coupland who turned up with his trailer and was able to get us a ton of sand to bag up and they even helped our neighbours too.
“However, in the end we had no option but to shut everything down and leave it as there was nothing more we could do.
"Now, it looks better than it actually is, as there is a lot of unseen damage where the water has seeped in.”
Undeterred, Eve hopes to have the main function room up and running in a couple of weeks, however the kitchen area may take a little longer.
Keep an eye on the Facebook page to get updates on events: https://www.facebook.com/mrtfcc