OLICANIAN Cricket Club are facing a race against time to be ready for the 2016 season after their newly-relaid square was swamped by flood water.

They are preparing to call in the experts who carried out the £46,000 scheme in September which was funded by a Sport England grant, to assess the damage caused on Boxing Day.

Chairman David House said: “This is devastating for the club. It is the second time we have been hit by flooding since the square was relaid. We now have to try and ascertain the cost of the damage.”

The club’s captain and groundsman Harry Smallwood has been busy clearing debris brought down by the floodwaters.

“I am really concerned about the state of the square,” he said. “The grass looks good from a distance, but when you get close up you can see it is sparse and the roots are not really established.

“Two new wickets which were created when the square was relaid have dropped as a result of the flooding and will need to be re-levelled.

“The flood water has deposited a lot of silt on the ground and there is a lot of leaves, bits of tree and logs that were washed down from the woods behind the ground.

“It was really disheartening to see the ground on Boxing Day. The water had got into the scorebox and garage, but the pitch was just a huge lake.”

The scheme to improve the club’s playing surface included relaying the entire square, adding two extra wickets and installing new drainage. It involved using 60 tons of loam and the pitches were laser levelled.

Smallwood now fears the square will not be ready for the start of the new season on April 16. “I was already concerned before the flooding,” said Smallwood. “It has been impossible to get onto the ground to do any work because it has been far too wet.

“We need some cold weather and frost to assist us. The mild and wet weather has not been good and we had already arranged for our first three first team games to be played away from home.

“We will have to see what the experts have to say, but the situation is not good.”

Smallwood is also groundsman at nearby Ben Rhydding. The floodwater covered the pitch there and got into the changing room area of the clubhouse.

“There are a lot of leaves and silt but the ground drains well and I don’t expect there to be too many problems once things dry up.”

Like Olicanian, Ilkley Cricket Club are counting the cost of a second flood in six weeks.

Their secretary Brian Wheeler said: “We had just finished painting the inside of the clubhouse and generally tidy the place up when we were flooded again. Unlike the last time, this was dirty flood water “We were due to have new carpets fitted but luckily they hadn’t been put down.

“Outside there is shale and gravel from the car park which has been deposited on the outfield with a lot of silt.”