11 May 22
St Albans Cricket Club bowled over by Affinity Water funding
The UK’s largest water-only supplier has stepped in with funding to provide St Albans Cricket Club with a ‘Super Sopper’ – a simple, but innovative piece of equipment that drains rainwater from pitch covers, allowing matches to continue without disruption ahead of the league season, which starts this Saturday 7th May.
Photo (left to right): Stuart Stevenson, Water Saving Assistant Project Manager, Affinity Water, Oliver Coulman - 2XI captain, St Albans Cricket Club, Cooks Nagar - Women's 2Xi captain, St Albans Cricket Club, Phil Caley - Head Groundsman, St Albans Cricket Club
As part of Affinity Water’s SOS: Save our Streams campaign, members of the public are being urged to waste less water and protect the UK’s precious chalk streams after initial statistics showed its customers use 9% more water per person, per day than the national average. Water that is soaked up by highly absorbent pads on the Super Sopper at St Albans Cricket club will then be saved and re-used by groundsman, in drier times, to water plants within the park and on the cricket square itself.
Coined ‘Britain’s Great Barrier Reef’, chalk streams, which boast clear water from underground springs, are more endangered than both the Bengal tiger and black rhino. Over 200,000 people in the Affinity Water region have already signed up to a landmark movement, pledging to reduce the amount of water they use on a daily basis and save these beautiful rivers. The latest investment at the cricket club will allow the team to safely play matches in wet conditions, whilst also reducing the need to use fresh water from taps and hoses to keep the grounds healthy in the hot summer months.
Matt Howeson, Club Captain St Albans Cricket Club said;
“We are very grateful to Affinity water for the funding we’ve received this summer. We lost several games as a result of waterlogged pitches last year, which was hugely disappointing for everyone involved.
“We are aiming for a double promotion again this summer, so the stakes are high. The Super Sopper will allow us to remove excess water from the playing surface and ultimately allow us to play more matches, whatever the weather. As a club, we are all invested in supporting the wider Save our Streams campaign - we are dependent on our local environment and committed to protecting the natural resources around us, so this is a perfect partnership for us.”
Affinity Water is calling on the British public to take action and Save Our Streams by saving 21 million litres per day (less than 10 litres per person, per day). Shockingly, this is the equivalent of 140 million cups of tea, 37 million pints of water, 262,500 baths and 8.4 Olympic swimming pools.
Gillian Watt, SOS Project Lead, commented;
“As a vibrant and thriving community sports team, we are so pleased our funding means that important matches can continue for St Albans Cricket Club, despite our unpredictable British summer weather.
“The UK is home to 85% of the world’s 210 chalk streams and we need to treasure our water now for the precious and important resource that it is. Saving water will not only help us do this, it will support our efforts towards a zero-carbon future.”
Members of the public are urged to take action now and visit www.saveourstreams.co.uk where, after answering a few questions about how they use water, they can gain access to their exact household’s water-use stats, a free water-saving kit plus free leak repairs and tailored advice via video calls.