First drought, now rain closes ground

Jane Emerick
Weather has thwarted local sporting matches in the Geelong area again but this time the culprit is rain instead of drought.
Just months after soccer and footy teams were concerned their reserves were dangerously dry, the rain has made surfaces too wet for weekly matches.
In April, Surf Coast Soccer Club organisers told the Independent the drought had forced their matches from their home oval at Jan Juc’s Bob Pettit Reserve to Connewarre.
Last week the club was in a similar situation when shire officers closed the reserve again because after too much rain made it unsafe.
“Grounds are closed to protect them from further or unnecessary damage and to reduce the chance of injury to players,” a Surf Coast Shire spokesperson said.
In Geelong, a City Hall spokesperson said “several” games had to move this week because wet weather had made grounds sensitive to damage.
Officials asked Geelong District Football League games to move from Hamlyn Park to Bakers Oval and for Barwon Soccer Club to find an alternative to Ocean Grove Reserve for junior matches.
Torquay councillor Keith Grossman questioned measures to protect the various grounds.
Grossman said footy teams in his time had played games on home grounds no matter the condition.
“In these modern days they’ve got different ideas as to what’s wet and what’s dry – back then it didn’t matter, you just played on it,” he said.
“I’ve never heard grounds being closed in the same season for being too dry and then being too wet but this weather is obviously great for the area and the ground is well saturated.”