Emergency Pitch Plans 2026

You'll have noticed just how hot and dry this summer has been, one of the hottest on record, in fact. Our pitches have really felt it. They've been under real stress and haven't had a proper chance to grow since November 2025, which is when the ground normally gets its main growing window.

We're now heading into a bit of a recovery period, but there's another challenge on the horizon: forecasters are expecting El Niño to bring one of the wettest January/February periods on record in 2027.

That combination, a summer that stopped the grass growing, followed by a very wet winter, puts our pitches under real pressure from both ends. Put simply: if we don't act now, we risk some pitches becoming unplayable within weeks. That would affect training, matches, and the whole club, so the Playing Committee has agreed a plan to protect them while there's still time.

What we're doing immediately:

• Pitch 2 is closing so we can reseed it while the weather's still warm and the soil is moist enough for the grass to take

• Senior teams will stagger training times to ease the pressure on Pitch 4

• Junior teams will avoid the other floodlit areas as much as possible during daylight hours

We've also been working on longer-term fixes behind the scenes: we've secured an agreement to use a local school's grass pitch on Sundays, and we've ring-fenced funding for wet-weather pitch provision later in the winter.

We know this asks a lot of everyone, and we really appreciate your patience. A bit of shared sacrifice now should mean much better pitches, and a much smoother season, for the whole club later on.

Thank you all,The Playing Committee