The European Pipe Band Championships and the World Highland Games Heavy Championships, both of which attracted crowds of several thousands left the park unusable and the Inverness and District Football Association is having to extend its summer season.

Yesterday a senior Highland Council official admitted the Inverness venue needed to be upgraded to avoid a repeat of the problems in future.

"The Bught is a wonderful venue, but when you get exceptional weather like this you've got to sit back and assess what we have learnt," said events organiser Gerry Reynolds, who intends looking at the possibility of creating a permanent roadway onto the park.

"We want people down there enjoying the facilities and using them. That's the whole point of what we do — damaging the facilities and not having them used is not.

"We're there to let people have a good time and obviously it's not green concrete, it's green grass and that's the reality."

Over 4500 bandsman took to the field on Saturday, while over 100 coaches and at least 250 cars used the parking areas. Five of the coaches needed assistance from a tractor to get away from the car park after getting stuck in the churned-up ground.

At least 45 tonnes of sand were used to combat the muddy conditions, but torrential rain at both events has cast a doubt over the completion date for the four amateur football divisions which normally finish by mid-August.

Some of the 35 clubs have sent representatives to look at the pitch and called the council to gauge the time-scale for repair of the damage.

The league, which has up to 1000 players, has also been contacted by some teams deciding whether they will continue the season.

"I don't think it will be realistic for the park to be ready even by September," said league secretary George Davidson, who was "disappointed" with the situation and took photographs of the pitch before and after the pipe band championships.

"If groundsmen are anticipating that it will take a month to repair and to get it all back in some sort of order, there will then be the problem of no grass growing and it would then mean the players have a bit of a mud-bath."

Four games due to be played at Bught Park were cancelled last night and other fixtures will be put back as the only other pitches used by the league are at Culloden, where just two games can be staged.

"I don't want to put all doom and gloom on it because it might spur teams on to call the season over and done with," Mr Davidson continued. "But we won't know to what extent the grass has been damaged until they have finished repairing it.

"The worst-case scenario is that the season would stretch into the winter period, where the nights get colder and damper and there is not so much light, but whether these parks will be fit or not is something we will have to wait and see."

He stressed the association, which pays around £15,000 per year to the council to use the facilities, did not oppose either event.

Mr Reynolds reassured the association that head groundsman Mike MacLeod and his team would make every effort to finish the repairs to the fields as soon as they could with work starting today .

"What Mike needs is some dry weather and sunshine to bring it back up," Mr Reynolds said. "Obviously, where there is some real damage, soil needs to be put back down and compacted in and it does take time but it will get back to its best," he said.

A council spokeswoman said an official assessment of the park had not yet taken place and that would need to be done before it could be confirmed how long the pitches would be out of action.

However, she said that members of education, culture and sport services would look at alternative options such as school pitches to minimise disruption. She added the nature of the two events meant that neither could be cancelled due to bad weather. Pitches would have to pass safety inspections before they can be used for competitive sport.

andrew.dixon@inverness-courier.co.uk

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