TWO local sports facilities have been left counting their losses - after flooding has caused major problems.

Stony Holme Golf Course - which only reopened again to the public four months ago - was completely underwater.

Carlisle Cricket Club, meanwhile, saw its pitch flooded and the possibility of equipment valued between £15,000 and £18,000 being lost.

Although the pavilion itself was not flooded, the equipment stores were.

Inside these stores are specialist mowers, which are valued at about £5,000 each.

Pitch equipment has also been damaged beyond repair. Chairman of the club, Mike Rayson, is hoping the water has not ruined the engines of the mowers.

“We are just hoping they are salvageable. Next week we will be checking the equipment.

“Obviously we will have to close down the areas affected by the water, cleaning and brushing out.

“Hopefully we will not have to buy more mowers because they are expensive.”

The club has a plan to safeguard its equipment from being damaged in a similar flood event in the future.

Mr Rayson continued: “We are in the middle of moving all our equipment to the other side of the green.

“Obviously that is a long term plan.”

The club is confident its next home game - which is against Whitehaven on Saturday - will go ahead as planned.

“We have moved the water off the centre where we play and hopefully the water levels (around the club) drop quickly.

“Hopefully we can play there next week.”

An army of 20 volunteers came down to lend a hand on Saturday, helping to move equipment from the flooded areas and onto drier land.

The club had issued a plea on Saturday morning appealing for help on social media.

Mr Rayson explained: “We had about 20 down in the morning after the Facebook appeal, people helping to move stuff.

“An outdoor fridge that we have, we had to move that out.

“That is six foot in height, so a few of us had to move that out.”

The club will be unable to claim the money back on its insurance, Mr Rayson addedas they maxed out their flood damage cover following the floods in 2015.

Although fully flooded by the heavy rain from the weekend, the operator of Stony Holme Golf Course, Jim Douglas, remains optimistic going forward.

He said: “It is closed temporarily, but we have seen far worse floods.

“We are hoping in the next few days we can get onto the course and hopefully by the end of the week we can get a few holes open.

“It is what I would call a medium flood, you can still see the greens.

“It won’t do a great deal of damage. We will have to clear up the areas afterwards, but I am reasonably confident we can have a good go at it during the week and hopefully get some holes open by the end of the week.”

The bar and restaurant remains open to the public, Mr Douglas added.