Pitch Inspection!

Like it ... Continuous playing of talk sport over the a system should do the job nicely

Look I'm not really blaming anyone, I'm sure the ref made the rght decision based on what he is required to do, I'm sure all the groundsmen worked their socks off to get the game on, I'm sure Irving, Simon and everyone else is as frustrated as we are, but the fact is games keep getting called off when (quite frankly) the weather the last few days has been not too bad for Autumn.

As it happens I went into Harrogate yesterday evening to see something at the Harrogate Theatre and driving through town it was almost impossible to believe there wasn't a game going on at the CNG. It was pretty well as good an evening as you could expect for this time of year. And, as has been said, the weather aint gonna get any better between now and the end of March. I do hope the club has some contingency plans because this is getting close to becoming farcical.

Checking throuh the results yesterday (even lower leagues than ours) I don't think any other games were called off because of waterlogging. I feel particularly annoyed because I will now miss the replay (assuming its on) because I have a pre-booked overnight in London that day. 'Annoyed' doesn't actually come close to describing my feelings!

Saturday is going to be interesting. will we actually get a game on? Anyone opening a book on it?

Don't really want to go on about this (well, I do actually), but here is a list of Yorkshire clubs (not complete) who managed to play home games last night:

Frickley/North Ferriby/Farsley/Harrogate Railway (!)...lost again/Ossett Albion/Wakefield/Liversedge/Taddy Albion (whose ground was completely flooded a few weeks ago). Having checked the Evo-Stik and NE Counties websites no P for Postponed letters anywhere.

This surely indicates that we do have a major problem with our pitch, if even 'micky mouse' clubs (sorry guys!) with no money could get their games on.

Groundsharing may have to be considered, winter has only just started!

And I watched BPA get tonked by Guseley 5-1, the pitch was superb, no muddy patches anywhere on that pitch even after the game...of course it was a little boring been a neutral so really hope this is sorted soon.

Funny though, Radcliffe was absolute garbage, and playing center back, defiantly lacking match fitness, just like the rest of the Harrogate squad.

Peter I wonder if it might be possible to request a satement from the club about this? Fans are clearly getting angry/frustrated etc. and disgruntled fans soon stop attending matches. For example do the club have contingency plans if this situation persists? Many thanks.

A statement has just popped up on my Facebook page from Irving which is a good technical explanation but doesn't offer any short term plan B...looking at the statement it looks like the Hyde game nearly went ahead had it not been for the ref allowing the linesmen to switch sides (whatever that means).

If, that is the case, all we can assume there is that the referee and 1 of the linesmen thought the pitch were okay, but when the 2nd linesman seen the other side of the pitch, decided that it wasnt safe enough.

Purely by chance (I won't say luckily because that implies that something good happened) I wouldn't have been able to attend anyway so I'm less p'd off than most of you.

I sort of understand Irvin's statement and the technicalities ... the weather has been unusually bad this year - although I must have missed the torrential rain at the Altrincham game as did the person who wrote the report. The rain came before the match and to be honest I didn't think it was that bad. But I digress.

Unfortunately the pitch will take time to knit together - it gets more rough use than your average garden. It took Wembley a while to get it right although others have got it right quicker. It all depends upon the design of the pitch (isn't Arsenals on about 16 large "trays"?) and we're limited in design/construction because we don't have a very deep purse compared to the Premiership.

I'm still prepared to take a deep breath and ride out these problems - for the whole season in fact if that's what it takes. But next season I doubt that I'll be as forgiving.

However, it looks like we're going to have a fixture backlog come spring - a big one if we have a cup run, so is that a good thing?

Very pleased to see Irving's explanation on the club forum...didn't understand most of it mind you! But good that the club are communicating. Thanks. Very frustrating that the game was almost on on Tuesday..couldn't the linesmen wear wellies? Especially as I'll miss the re-run.
As has been said doesn't tell us what might happen if the wet weather persists, but good to get the communication.