Carlisle Sentinels Devastated By Cumbria Flooding Disaster

The Club's Manager And Head Coach Talked To Us About The Heartbreak Of Losing All Their Kit And Equipment To The Water, Along With Their Home Ground...

On December 6, devastating floods tore through the city of Carlisle for the second time in 10 years, as Storm Desmond brought record-breaking rains.

The Carlisle Sentinels home ground at Carlisle Rugby Club was in one of the worst affected areas, finding itself under nearly 10 feet of water. By a cruel twist of fate, the team had only the day before gathered all of its kit and game day equipment in a storage space under the stand for checking. When the water came through, bringing sewage and chemical waste with it, everything was destroyed.

Christopher Bond, the head coach and a veteran of the sport from the 80’s and 90’s, and his wife Nicola, the club’s manager, have invested immeasurable time and money into the team since deciding to establish it in 2013, and after a respectable first season in 2015, now find themselves starting from square one.

“It’s been really really hard work – there’s been tears and arguments, but there’s been so much enjoyment and pride from it,” Nicola said, “and to finish from our first season with 3 wins, we’ve been told that’s a really good season for a rookie team with very few people who had played before, and we were really proud of that. We really felt like we were getting somewhere – not just us, everybody has put so much work in, and to see what we saw on Sunday was absolutely devastating.”

The rugby club was cordoned off for a week for health and safety reasons – even two weeks later parts of it remain underwater - but the Sentinels were finally allowed into their home ground to pick up the pieces on Sunday the 13th, and Chris was so horrified by the scene that Nicola says he refused to even allow her to see it.

“It was absolute carnage,” he told us. “The water had thrown everything around like toys, helmets were smashed, there was rubbish everywhere… and the smell. When people think of flooding they just think about the water, but there were chemicals and a 40 litre drum of diesel in the next room that had gone over, raw sewage that had come back up the drains… it was unbelievable.”

The entire county of Cumbria has been devastated by Storm Desmond and the Sentinels are all dealing with their own personal losses – Nicola and Chris told us of one player who has been totally flooded out of his home, another whose riverside stables and fields were destroyed, and one coach whose city centre business was completely gutted. With the main bridge into Carlisle closed due to structural damage, the region is still a disaster zone two weeks later.

"We Really Felt Like We Were Getting Somewhere, And To See What We Saw On Sunday Was Absolutely Devastating." - Nicola Bond, Carlisle Sentinels.

Due to the oil slicks, raw sewage and other health hazards carried by the flood, the issue of returning to the field is not simply a matter of waiting for the waters to recede – the entire field needs to be disinfected, and the drainage system and the turf could have to be totally replaced to make them safe again. The Sentinels could be waiting up to 8 months before they can go home.

After making sure everyone in their football family was taken care of, the next priority for Chris and Nicola was finding a new venue so they could continue their preseason preparations, but with the deluge having swamped most of the city’s sports facilities, there is an extremely high demand and low supply for the remaining available pitches. So far, they are hitting a brick wall.

The Sentinels in happier times, scoring against the Halton Spartans in May 2015. © Tim Furfie

Trying to look on the bright side, Nicola insists she will never complain about football kit cluttering her garage again, after her decision to launder the team’s white and green match uniforms at home led to them being the only asset saved from the destruction. All in all, Chris estimates that the team has lost around £6000 worth of equipment.

As they came to terms with this discovery, a friend helped them set up a Facebook support group, and the nationwide American football community has sprung into action. As of Thursday morning, just 3 days after opening the group, nearly £1000 has been pledged, along with numerous donations of kit. The Halton Spartans coughed up the kitty from their merchandise shop on Football America UK, and the Wembley Stallions offered to cover an invoice for a set of game balls. The Newcastle Vikings plan to hold a fundraiser at their January training camp, and there is also talk of a benefit tournament. One of the NFL’s UK executives has even told Chris and Nicola he is trying to get his colleagues to help out.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Nicola said. “It’s been hard, because this is supposed to be our festive period, and it’s only by chance that we decided to pile all our gear in one place to check it and make sure it was okay to use next season, and this happened. We’d done our rookie sessions, got our playbook sorted and recruited really well, and we were getting ready to plan some kitted sessions in January.”

“As far as playing next season goes, team wise, we are ready - we all know exactly what we should be doing,” Chris added. “Kit wise, we’re in a race against time.”