Match is Off

Due to the consistent rain in Harrogate over the last week, despite the new drainage system working well, the pitch has simply been overwhelmed by the amount of water.

Blooming weather!

Regards,

Pete

I am one thoroughly p....d of panda! I don't have a computer at home (or smart phone), so set off from Leeds this lunchtime not knowing the game was off. I took two precautions before leavng the house: 1) I phoned the club office...I did not expect anyone to be there but a simple message could have been left to callers: 'Sorry, todays game is off'...two minutes to record. The phone simply rang and went on to voice mail. 2) I kept checking Soccer Special's scrolling fixtures: a P for postponed is always put by postponed games. Needless to say nothing was indicated by Harrogate's name, so, of course, I assumed the game was on. Why was Sky not informed?

By the way I was not the only sucker, wen I was peering through the gates (at about 1.50 p.m.), at what looked like an obviously playable pitch, the chap ho does the First Aid turned up...no-one had bothered to tell him either...brilliant.

By the way, a couple of observations: the grass verge just outside Wetherby Road was solid and firm...no hint of water. I walked back into Harrogate across the Stray (a notoriously squelchy area) and one small spot excepted the ground was firm and solid, no lying water whatsover. Could comfortably have played a game on it.

The weather is perfect for football: a drying wind would have cleared up any problems between 7.30 and 3.00. I bet its the only game in the country called off...a disgrace.

paulstreet wrote:I am one thoroughly p....d of panda! I don't have a computer at home (or smart phone), so set off from Leeds this lunchtime not knowing the game was off. I took two precautions before leavng the house: 1) I phoned the club office...I did not expect anyone to be there but a simple message could have been left to callers: 'Sorry, todays game is off'...two minutes to record. The phone simply rang and went on to voice mail. 2) I kept checking Soccer Special's scrolling fixtures: a P for postponed is always put by postponed games. Needless to say nothing was indicated by Harrogate's name, so, of course, I assumed the game was on. Why was Sky not informed?

By the way I was not the only sucker, wen I was peering through the gates (at about 1.50 p.m.), at what looked like an obviously playable pitch, the chap ho does the First Aid turned up...no-one had bothered to tell him either...brilliant.

By the way, a couple of observations: the grass verge just outside Wetherby Road was solid and firm...no hint of water. I walked back into Harrogate across the Stray (a notoriously squelchy area) and one small spot excepted the ground was firm and solid, no lying water whatsover. Could comfortably have played a game on it.

The weather is perfect for football: a drying wind would have cleared up any problems between 7.30 and 3.00. I bet its the only game in the country called off...a disgrace.

Hi Paul,

Firstly, I am sorry that you did not get the information that the game was cancelled. I can imagine your annoyance at arriving at the ground to find out.

However, let me make a few things clear, and I hope that you will take these into consideration!

1) The club has an obligation that if a match looks in doubt for any reason, be it weather, team issues or international games, they have to contact the Conference and in certain cases the FA. On Thursday and Friday, the pitch was very wet and waterlogged in places where it had been overrun by the constant rain that Harrogate has had and therefore the club contact both Bishop's Stortford and the Conference. It was agreed by all that a pitch inspection needed to be done which Harrogate arranged for 8am this morning.

2) The referee that came looked at the ground and also the Stadium as a whole (he has to take into account the safety of the crowd not just the players). He deemed the ground unplayable due to the rain and called the game off - the ref called the game off NOT THE CLUB! We then told Bishop's Stortford to stop them from traveling.

3) The information was then placed on the website/Twiiter/Facebook and several forums by myself at 8:32 - Two minutes following the club contacting me to let me know.

Finally, and I do take a wee bit of exception to this Paul, several agencies were informed by myself (including Sky)that the match was cancelled - however what they choose to do with that information is out of my hands once it leaves my computer.

You mention the weather/Stray and outside the ground, again what can the club do about all three of these aspects? We certainly cannot help that the sun came out later on in the morning. As I have already pointed out the referee called the match off. The club cannot reinstate the match - we do not have the authority to do so.

What would it have been like if we let all the fans and Bishop's Stortford travel all the way up to Harrogate and then called the match off - could you imagine the outcry then!

Kind regards,

Peter

As someone who walked for half an hour to get to the ground (and likewise half an hour back) I can understand the dilemma. I never considered when I left home that the match wouldn't be on. The lake in my garden had disappeared. Didn't bother to use the internet. But I wasn't there at 8.00am!

So I've learned a lesson. And got a good bit of exercise too!

However, for those who don't have internet access, is there a way a message can be put on the answerphone at the club? Seems to me a reasonable thing to do.

Btw Pete, it says on my phone that your posting was at 9.55, not 8.32. I've often noticed a difference between when I thought I posted and the time on the message board. Is there a clock problem?

Dan_Gleebitz wrote:

Btw Pete, it says on my phone that your posting was at 9.55, not 8.32. I've often noticed a difference between when I thought I posted and the time on the message board. Is there a clock problem?

If you mean on this forum yes, I believe that that the admin has to manually alter some settings regarding the clock, however the post was made at 8:55 on this forum, 8:32 on the website, 8:33 on Twitter and facebook. Sports agencies were emailed before 9am!

HTAFC Press Officer wrote:

Dan_Gleebitz wrote:

Btw Pete, it says on my phone that your posting was at 9.55, not 8.32. I've often noticed a difference between when I thought I posted and the time on the message board. Is there a clock problem?

If you mean on this forum yes, I believe that that the admin has to manually alter some settings regarding the clock, however the post was made at 8:55 on this forum, 8:32 on the website, 8:33 on Twitter and facebook. Sports agencies were emailed before 9am!

Hopefully the clock should be correct now!

To be fair, it was also mentioned several times on Stray FM that the game had been called off.

I cannot believe that more hasn't been made of the game having been called off in the first place, all the talk about this state of the art drainage system and a bit of rain and the game is called off. I do hope the houses that Irving's company build have better drainage than the one at Wetherby Road!

What a cheap shot!
If it wasn't for Mr Weaver's commitment, we wouldn't have a new pitch at all. It isn't clever to refer to "a bit of rain" when the Stray was flooded! I don't think Town Supporter is one, really!
I wonder if we win tonight, whether he'll complain about something?

Our new pitch is fantastic for true supporters
I have one concern - it seems that water runs quite freely off the tarmac surrounds and down onto the playing surface
Maybe some remedial drainage work needed around the pitch perimeter?
I know that this has already happened in the "bottom corner" - there is still a gentle slope of course which is deliberate

I have had quite a few emails about this.

As I have tried to explain to the people who have emailed me, it wasn't the drainage that was at fault, the MET confirmed that we had 6 days of rain and in the end it overwhelmed the pitch - it is like the flood defences in York - after a continuous battering they cant take any more and ... well you can guess the rest. If the dry spell (which was one day - Friday) had been a day earlier then chances are it would have been fine.

In the bottom corner is an extra eco-drain that deals with surface run but again, it can only take so much before the tank/channel is full.

I saw the ground yesterday, the grass had been cut and it looked first rate to be fair. Roll on Oxford City.

Regards,

Peter

As I've put somewhere else, I was very surprised that the BPA match was ON after we'd played Altrincham the Tuesday before and had a fair bit of rain on a new playing surface. Likewise it surprised me when the match was off.

In the week leading up to the match, we had just over 33mm of rain, 18mm on one day (30 Aug) and 25mm over 2 days (29 and 30 August). Average August rainfall is around 65mm but this year we had over 90mm - and a quarter of that in 2 days! Oddly enough, August isn't a particularly "dry" month, however on this occasion we did have a few "deluge" days. And unfortunately August seems to be fond of those from the statistics I've seen.

So my conclusion is that we might get a few more matches called off in August because of "monsoon" conditions but that (and I'm guessing here) the system will cope with "steady" rain. So I reckon the winter months might be ok as far as the pitch is concerned - it's still a bit "new".