The mind boggles as to the level of communication between clubs and leagues in the lead upto a match being postponed. Yesterday saw an early pitch inspection, helpfully conducted after the plane had landed at Gatwick, which resulted in the m,atch being called off due to snow on the pitch.
The snow in question seemed to be of the Tate & Lyle variety (other brands of snow are available) and, bearing in mind there were several hours to kick off, there was no further dusting expected and the opposition was only a few miles up the road (having spent a few grand in getting there) the decision to postpone seemed a little hasty.
Intrepid explorer Craig McLoughlin visitied the ground later in the morning, still well ahead of the scheduled kick-off time, when the dusting had all but disappeared. Craig reported that he'd inserted a 6 inch peg into the ground and there was no evidence of a frozen pitch. OK, it was probably just a 3 inch peg but the result would have been the same.
The conspiracy theory espoused by some that this was a convenient way to get to to play our midweek team is clearly not one that we can endorse (!)...... Leagues do need to establish some ground rules regarding to pitch inspections though, along the lines of them being conducted at a time agreed by both teams at the very least.
It may well be that the timing of yesterday's pitch inspection was mutually agreed, in which case it's our own stupid fault. It was probably that Three Bridges arranged an early pitch inspection without being aware of GFC's travel arrangements. In which case the little bit of communication required to ensure mutual agreement would have saved the club a not insignificant amount of money. Then again, maybe the conspiracy theorists were right.
It's not the first time we've had a match postponed due to the weather when the team had already made it to the UK after all. Remember Egham a couple of seasons ago when a pitch inspection was held when GFC were on the way from the airport to the ground in the coach. The pitch, which was apparently fine on Friday and had nothing more than a spit on it overnight, was declared unfit, despite it looking fine to us and the home team (so they were keen to tell us). Anyway Egham got to play our midweek side, won the match and eventually the league title.
No doubt the conspiracy theorists will be keeping an eye on the weather in Reigate over the next few days (in the knowledge that South Park's pitch was frozen again on Saturday.
Not us at Ormering Towers though.
Keep it Green
Allez les Verts!!
