The Albert Road lawn has made an astonishing recovery from Friday’s record-breaking biblical deluge.
Despite the severe flooding, members were able to play croquet the following morning.
Caversham’s in-house expert, retired hydrologist Terry Marsh, reported: “Friday’s rainfall was very exceptional – 40 millimetres in 24 hours at the Reading University Met Station.
“That’s provisionally the wettest March day on record and closely approaching the average for the month as whole.
“In Caversham, the rain was particularly intense through the late afternoon – exceeding the infiltration capacity of the croquet lawn.
“By 17.00 hrs standing water was evident across approximately 20 per cent of the lawn – with the great majority in the eastern half.
“By comparison, the bowling green was 60 per cent inundated and three ducks had taken up temporary residence.”
The sage of Harrogate Road (pictured above) added: “I checked again at 18.45. Despite continuing moderate rainfall virtually no standing water was evident on the croquet lawn while approximately 15 per cent of the bowling lawn remained inundated.
“This was an impressive demonstration of the croquet lawn’s resilience to heavy rainfall.
“The ponding pattern did however underline the greater vulnerability of the areas south of hoop three and south-south-east of hoop five — particularly the area with the thinnest grass cover.
“This probably reflects the micro-topography in these areas.”
Notwithstanding the floods, early next morning four players were able to get on to the lawn to hone their one-ball skills.
Chris Barnard reported: “The lawn was very heavy due to the length of the grass and dampness but was otherwise in good condition.”
- Many thanks to Terry for the report and for keeping an eye on the lawn on our behalf. As his picture taken from the top floor of Marsh Towers shows, the conditions weren’t great for tennis either!