Keswick Rugby Club still able to host Hallowe'en event after flooding

Keswick Rugby Club will host its Hallowe'en night tonight after the clubhouse was flooded on Thursday morning.

After water entered the building, the club managed to rally round volunteers to help clear the building.

The pitches were also flooded.

Allan Lambert, chairman of Keswick Rugby Club, said: "Our pitch is on a flood plain and there’s a bund between the pitches and the clubhouse.

"So when the water level in the lake rises, it floods the pitches and the land around the clubhouse and it also comes up through the clubhouse floor.

"The pitches were covered by about two or three feet of water and it started coming in the clubhouse [on Thursday] morning.

"We cleared as much we could, the fire brigade came down and they pumped around the clubhouse, over the bund and onto the pitches.

"This helped keep the water level low enough for us to be able to get rid of most of the water in the clubhouse.

"There’s still water behind the bar and other places that we’re getting rid of.

"We’ve got a heater going to dry stuff off.

"It’s not something that we haven’t done before, so we know roughly what we’ve got to do, it’s just getting on with it."

The club was well equipped after being flooded before. It has a concrete floor with a commercial carpet down.

It also benefitted from the water coming from the lake rather than the river, meaning it was clean.

Mr Lambert praised everyone who helped remove the water from the clubhouse.

He said: "It’s a small community in Keswick and those players who were available locally came down.

"A lot of people who were there were off work because roads were closed and weather conditions weren’t good.

"One or two people who were meant to be doing other things but couldn’t were able to come down and help out as well.

"So we had enough people to deal with it properly.

"We had good help from supporters, good help from general club members and of course, the fire brigade."