Guernsey's football clubs battle to prepare pitches for new season

Clubs in Guernsey said they were trying to maintain their surfaces, but with limited equipment and funding, are finding it hard to water all areas of the ground.

Due to the lack of water, with just 5.4mm (0.2 inches) of rainfall recorded on the island in July, and with league games rolling around soon, it is less likely the grass will be in the condition that players want.

North groundsman Simon Jackson said: "Last year was bad, this year has been unprecedented, I can't remember a time [since] my son has been playing at the club and it's been as bad as this."

Jackson added: "We have sprinklers going for three hours at night, and ziplines to get the areas which are looking the worst, but we are on a well and there is only a certain amount of water in that well, so we are trying to manage as best as we can."

St Martin's AC club director Ben Hunter said: "If we had a week of rain it (the grass) would pop up in about 10 days, you can start to see green patches where we have watered it but it's hard as when we start having players on there every night, it's hard to recover."

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