Worcestershire move two County Championship games to Kidderminster because of floods

Worcestershire will play their first two home games in this season's County Championship at Kidderminster because of flooding at their New Road ground.

The Pears will now play Durham and Somerset at Chester Road, starting on 19 April and 26 April respectively.

The switch has been made following a fifth flood of the winter at their home next to the River Severn.

Worcestershire are back in the first division of the Championship for the first time since 2018.

Because of their perennial problems with winter flooding, Worcestershire are given permission from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to play their first two four-day games of each season away from home, to give their ground staff more time to get New Road in shape.

Despite another harsh winter, the Pears had hoped to be able to host Durham, who they won promotion with last season, at New Road but have had to concede defeat.

"Despite facing four floods since the close of the 2023 season, we remained highly confident in our ability to start this season at New Road," chief executive Ashley Giles said.

"However, the occurrence of a fifth flood this week has necessitated the decision to move our initial home games to Kidderminster."

It will be the first time Worcestershire have played a County Championship match at their second home since similar flooding problems forced games against Derbyshire and Sussex to be moved there in 2019.

They were also scheduled to play Sussex again at Chester Road the following year but the match never took place because of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kidderminster also hosted the majority of the club's home games in the notoriously wet summer of 2007, when the club was hit by some of the worst flooding in its history.

Going forward, Giles has expressed his concern over the future viability of New Road as the club's home given the worsening situation with flooding.

He said that although "no-one wants to leave New Road" it had to be "in my thoughts and it has to be in the thoughts of our membership" about relocating the club if water levels continue to rise.

In addition to the two County Championship matches, it has also been confirmed the Central Sparks fixture against Sunrisers in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy on Wednesday, 1 May will be played at Kidderminster.