OFF: ECFC V Barnsley : MDT 24th January 7.45pm

[Boyo]

I think we just live in a society now where someone has to be at fault and therefore to blame, for everything. People like to see themselves as the victim and entitled.

 

[Nigel E]

Changing my mind on this. Some of the vitriol heading our way is pathetic.

"You can always tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much"

 

[Alistair20000]

The thing is, in their statement Barnsley made mention that they went to the expense of travelling down on Monday and staying overnight. If they wanted to avoid that, we would have had to call the game off early Monday morning which would have been ridiculous. It sounds like Chas and the ground staff thought the chances of the pitch being playable were suitably high with the met office forecast and sun being out. It seems around 90% of it was in the referee's opinion. Communication could have been better although it would presumably been along the lines of holding information in those circumstances as they thought it would be ok.

No one likes travelling for nothing, especially long distances and there is cost involved. But you have to be careful it doesn't go to much the other way. If you saying that the match should be called off before anyone starts travelling if there is any doubt, a lot of games will be called off that could have gone ahead. So what percentage chance of a pitch being playable do you trigger a postponement at? 50%? 75%? 90%? You will always have situations where the postponement will be later than ideal.

Balance of probabilities or beyond reasonable doubt ?

 

[Colesman Ballz]

The thing is, in their statement Barnsley made mention that they went to the expense of travelling down on Monday and staying overnight. If they wanted to avoid that, we would have had to call the game off early Monday morning which would have been ridiculous. It sounds like Chas and the ground staff thought the chances of the pitch being playable were suitably high with the met office forecast and sun being out. It seems around 90% of it was in the referee's opinion. Communication could have been better although it would presumably been along the lines of holding information in those circumstances as they thought it would be ok.

No one likes travelling for nothing, especially long distances and there is cost involved. But you have to be careful it doesn't go to much the other way. If you saying that the match should be called off before anyone starts travelling if there is any doubt, a lot of games will be called off that could have gone ahead. So what percentage chance of a pitch being playable do you trigger a postponement at? 50%? 75%? 90%? You will always have situations where the postponement will be later than ideal.

A team travelling the day before is a non issue. That is down to them and at their own risk. The issue is that for a spectator sport, the paying customers are not considered whatsoever. The insistence that re arranged matches have to be played midweek in January is high risk and nuts. Then appointing referee from the other end of the country is crazy. A method of an appropriately qualified referee assessing the pitch earlier is required. You cannot legislate for sudden last minute weather changes, but with freezing conditions officialdom should be doing a whole lot better than just shrugging it's collective shoulders and staying with the status quo.

 

[Rosencrantz]

A team travelling the day before is a non issue. That is down to them and at their own risk. The issue is that for a spectator sport, the paying customers are not considered whatsoever. The insistence that re arranged matches have to be played midweek in January is high risk and nuts. Then appointing referee from the other end of the country is crazy. A method of an appropriately qualified referee assessing the pitch earlier is required. You cannot legislate for sudden last minute weather changes, but with freezing conditions officialdom should be doing a whole lot better than just shrugging it's collective shoulders and staying with the status quo.

But even if a referee came in at 10am Tuesday for an inspection, he would have seen a largely playable pitch with the sun out and had the same met office forecast to look at. He can make an informed decision but how high are you setting the bar of probability on the pitch being unplayable before you call the game off?

 

[Antony Moxey]

But even if a referee came in at 10am Tuesday for an inspection, he would have seen a largely playable pitch with the sun out and had the same met office forecast to look at. He can make an informed decision but how high are you setting the bar of probability on the pitch being unplayable before you call the game off?

As I said earlier, maybe have a cut off time for the inspection. If in doubt, it's off. Truth be told I doubt there'd be many games called off that could have been played, and it's also rare for a game to be called off late that there wasn't always a possibility that it could have been called off. This game in particular. If it had been called off at lunchtime I doubt there's many who would have said it was too premature - the pitch was frozen, we knew that area of the ground wouldn't get any direct sunlight later that day and it was forecast to remain as cold if not colder throughout the night. It wasn't a surprise. Perhaps it's something that could be looked at in future.

 

[Grecian2K]

And it is interesting to note that, even though last evening was somewhat less arctic, Exmouth Town's Devon Bowl game at Ladysmead was called off due to a still frozen pitch.


I presume those poor travelling 'muff fans are also swamping SM about the late cancellation and the travelling involved.

As a final aside does anyone remember that game (against Grimsby??) a few years back when the game was called off about half an hour before kick off because the ref had deemed a tiny slither of ice in front of the Selco a potential risk for his linesman.

The travelling fans, basking in the sun in the beer garden of the Brook Green in shirtsleeves were too gob smacked to be merely "unimpressed".

 

[Grecian2K]

Another difficulty is the increasing unreliability of "weather forecasts" these days (apart from Dr Dave's of course, but sadly they only tend to extend for a few hours)

The tabloid media are STILL filling their empty spaces with dire predictions of a new "Beast From The East" waiting to pounce on us, or else a "Greenland Snow Bomb" just, possibly, waiting to engulf us in a week of so's time.

So maybe it's best to cancel all games right now until at least the beginning of March, just in case a few "snowflakes" come fluttering down?

 

[Alistair20000]

A team travelling the day before is a non issue. That is down to them and at their own risk. The issue is that for a spectator sport, the paying customers are not considered whatsoever. The insistence that re arranged matches have to be played midweek in January is high risk and nuts. Then appointing referee from the other end of the country is crazy. A method of an appropriately qualified referee assessing the pitch earlier is required. You cannot legislate for sudden last minute weather changes, but with freezing conditions officialdom should be doing a whole lot better than just shrugging it's collective shoulders and staying with the status quo.

This

 

[Colesman Ballz]

But even if a referee came in at 10am Tuesday for an inspection, he would have seen a largely playable pitch with the sun out and had the same met office forecast to look at. He can make an informed decision but how high are you setting the bar of probability on the pitch being unplayable before you call the game off?

It shouldn't have even been scheduled for a Tuesday night in January is the point. When there are so many free Tuesday nights available between now and May. Of course you can't prevent every cancellation from happening, but you can take a few simple steps which will considerably reduce the overal risk for the sake of the fans. It doesn't really matter if the players make an abortive trip, it may be an inconvenience, but they are being paid whilst doing so regardless. The supporters are not, they are shelling out from their own pockets. Those are the ones ending consideration !