Carlisle floods updates

[shoddycollins]

I guess many will want to know what is going to happen to us now that our stadium is underwater. You may remember it was under-water earlier this month, prior to the Portsmouth game, but that was just a flash-flood and was quickly cleared leaving the pitch unharmed. The groundstaff may have more of a job on their hands on this occasion.

As yet there has been no official statement from the club as to what our plans are, but media manager Andy Hall has tweeted a message from director Suzanne Kidd saying that they currently have no e-mail access at the club due to servers being down, so it could be a little while before the relevant people are able to communicate and coordinate a response.

I don't know much about football pitch maintenance but I feel it's a safe bet we're going to require new turf laid once the flood-waters recede, and I don't think you can just lay turf and then play on it the following week, it needs to take root (I could be wrong, but this is true for normal lawn turf and I assume it is also true for sports pitches). I'll keep an eye on the news throughout the day, but am travelling for most of the day.

Our next home game scheduled is against Notts County on the 19th, following that we have Hartlepool on the 28th and Plymouth on the 2nd of January. It could be that these games are simply postponed, I don't know how long it would take us to get back up and running. Last time this happened we were a Conference side and Brunton Park was out of action for several months, we played our home games variously at Workington, Gretna and Morecambe. There is an argument for avoiding the disruption brought by postponements and depending how long we're out of action for, seeking alternative venues may be essential. At least we have no concentration of home games scheduled for the next few weeks.

In other news, the players have asked to offer relief for those affected by the flooding; Alexander McQueen, Troy Archibald-Henville and Dan Hanford had their cars parked at the stadium ahead of the trip to Welling, and these have been washed away. Welling fans donated money raised from their raffle to the flood relief fund, almost £600 in total. This is a fantastic gesture and I hope we're able to repay them somehow, perhaps some Welling fans representatives, should be invited as guests of honour to one of our home games. Or we could allow them to use our training facilities next time they have an away game in the far north (assuming our training facilities have dried off). Finally Mark Gillespie (who didn't travel to Welling) had to be rescued from the first floor of a house on Warwick Road.

Regarding the fans who post here, I'm OK of course and think I have seen recent updates from Alan Partridge , cufc17 , daviejones and FootballMad (ipad is running slow, making it hard for me to check everything thoroughly) and haven't seen anything since the Welling game from hellogregory or BigDaveCUFC so we hope they're all OK.

 

[oakroader]

did have plans to visit the lake district one day,looks like i'll wait for it to visit me!!

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I'm ok, I live near Carlisle college so it was close, but we're although I'm abit frustrated as a possible life changing interview for me (well life changing as it may be my long-term future job if I got it) is on Wednesday, but in Bolton......hoping that I can get a train down there but its going to be a long hard sluggish ride.

as for football............we won't play at our ground till mid or end of jan I'd think at earliest.

going to have to play elsewhere, maybe Notts they could reverse and have us away would make sense. Otherwise maybe Morecambe or Gateshead.....Dumfries would make a lot of sense but I think FA rules would not allow it.

 

[rudebwoyben]

This could be very disruptive to your season, just when it looks like you're challenging for the top 7 (I can't recall exactly but I'm sure it didn't help you in 2004/05 as you fell further and further behind us).
If you can't play at Queen of the South, I'd have thought Morecambe would be the most sensible alternative as Workington is nowhere near league standard and Barrow probably has the same issues with accessibility that Carlisle now has.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I think it'll have the opposite effect.

the last floods brought the team/club/fanbase/city together and we ended up promoted at the end of the season (we were about 9th in conference and collapsing at the time of floods.

the bigger problem may be that we were going to add 2-3 players in jan and of course they may not move here now.

 

[daviejones]

The team's already really pulling together on this one and it's paying off in terms of the fans appreciation. Think this thread sums it up nicely.

http://thecumbrians.net/index.php/forum/main-forum/1666-player-s-offer-to-help-in-floods

 

[hellogregory]

Our next home game scheduled is against Notts County on the 19th, following that we have Hartlepool on the 28th and Plymouth on the 2nd of January. It could be that these games are simply postponed, I don't know how long it would take us to get back up and running. Last time this happened we were a Conference side and Brunton Park was out of action for several months,

Only one month. We didn't have to play a league game away from Brunton park, just a couple of tinpot trophy matches.

 

[Pooliekev]

I really hope it's not as bad as it looks in that pic.

 

[T.A]

You should tour The country like England did when Wembley was being rebuilt.

Seriously hope it works out for you.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I really hope it's not as bad as it looks in that pic.

it has been as bad, probably down a wee bit now but that was how it looked yesterday its in one of the worst areas.

of course the ideal club for us to use short-term is Newcastle but fat chance a prem club bothers to help........sounds terrible I know but they never do.

 

[shoddycollins]

No news as such yet, just a statement from the club saying they are in discussions with opponents for future games and have currently suspended ticket sales for both home and away games.

 

[Carver]

No news as such yet, just a statement from the club saying they are in discussions with opponents for future games and have currently suspended ticket sales for both home and away games.

I'm fine ShoddyCollins thank you, I have not been affected by the flood but my thoughts are with those who have.

So it is unclear how long it will be until we get Brunton Park back, so we will have to probably find a new temporary venue for our home matches and will be very grateful to whoever welcomes us to use their ground. I would hope Newcastle would let us use St James Park as I think it is the nearest league ground to us and it would defiantly suit us! If they turn us down then maybe Gateshead would be ideal. Anywhere else just seems too far away!

 

[shoddycollins]

If we were able to arrange to use Queen of the South's ground people think the FA would seriously block it?

 

[Carver]

If we were able to arrange to use Queen of the South's ground people think the FA would seriously block it?

This is a one off type thing so I don't see why they would block us from using a ground in Scotland, it's not like we have some crazy owner who wants to move our club to a foreign country. It's a devastating flood that has destroyed our ground, so if they said no then it would make them look heartless.

 

[daviejones]

I think we have to accept that we're probably going to be quite far away and that we're going to lose a lot of money from gate receipts because of that, and because people will have more important things to spend their money and time on. If we can scrape through this still in the play-offs then I'll be very happy.

 

[hellogregory]

Away next week.
The Notts county home game on the 19tb could potentially be switched to their place if they agree? It would clash with forest on the Saturday, but it could take place on the Friday night or the Sunday? Then obviously host them when we were due to go there late in season.
Then away on Boxing Day
The home game on the 28th may have to be rescheduled, same with the Plymouth match on Jan 2nd.

Hopefully that would give us enough time to get the stadium into a playable condition again.

 

[hellogregory]

If we were able to arrange to use Queen of the South's ground people think the FA would seriously block it?

Yeah they might block it because it's an artificial pitch which as far as I know is not allowed for football league fixtures. I also don't think our coaches and players would fancy playing on that surface and I think the away team would strongly object.

 

[daviejones]

News of another fantastic gesture has just come out, this time from Oxford who we play at the weekend. They'll be donating all proceeds from their 50/50 prize draw to the Cumbria flood appeal - last time we played them this was around £900 and I'm sure people will be inclined to buy a few more tickets this time knowing where the money is going.

 

[daviejones]

From our media officer:

@cufckit: Putting an article together (will appear when everything clicks into place) to highlight the offers of help we've had from this entity we call the 'football family' over the last 48 hours. From Premier League clubs to FL officials, to amazing gestures from @wellingunited

 

[mossypne]

I'm lead to believe that Carlisle are in talks with PNE to host your home game vs Notts County at Deepdale.

 

[shoddycollins]

Away next week.
The Notts county home game on the 19tb could potentially be switched to their place if they agree? It would clash with forest on the Saturday, but it could take place on the Friday night or the Sunday? Then obviously host them when we were due to go there late in season.
Then away on Boxing Day
The home game on the 28th may have to be rescheduled, same with the Plymouth match on Jan 2nd.

Hopefully that would give us enough time to get the stadium into a playable condition again.

Aren't we due to travel to Notts on the last day? I can understand of they were reluctant to switch being at home on the last day, to away.

 

[jacobncfc]

Preston would be a sound compromise for that game, already got train tickets booked so somewhere on the same line would be great. Obviously well aware that my own travel plans pale into insignificance somewhat here!

Queen of the South or Workington sound like much more fun, though.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Hope all our Carlisle supporters on here are ok.

 

[cufc17]

I can't see us using Deepdale in all honesty, I'd prefer somewhere reasonably nearby like QoTS (though as already mentioned, unlikely).

Great support shown by several clubs/associations for the flood fund, very grateful.

 

[hellogregory]

QOTS's 3G pitch makes it a no go as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Wombling Kiwi]

Having been though a natural disaster (Earthquakes) my thoughts are with you. We are still repairing our city 5 years later.

 

[Alan Partridge]

QotS would have been ideal - £6 return on the rattler (if the WCM would be open by then?), plenty of pubs in the town centre, Haggis at half-time...

But as HG says, The FL would never let us play on a 3G pitch, never mind play 30miles deep into Scotland.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I know heading north is not the best answer but what about a Motherwell or Hamilton.

both easy to access from road and rail.

I think Sunderland would be ideal for Hartlepool game, they are away on boxing day, we could get to that ground easy and so can Hartlepool.

just open one side.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Hamilton would be a no-no because they play on a plastic pitch

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

dear me does anyone within an hour of Carlisle play on a normal pitch!!