Bury OFF

[ferrarilover]

I've done it plenty, travel about, get to the ground and find the game is off. I travelled to Stockport three times for an FA Cup match a few years ago (not technically true). The irony of a Bury fan (who, being in Manchester, travels about 500 yards for most away games) complaining about journey distances on a Torquay United forum (a team who consider Cheltenham, 130 miles away to be a local derby) is coming close to making me weep with laughter.

Matt.

[portugull]

Who remembers travelling by train to London after our epic 3-3 draw with Spurs in the F A Cup only to get to White Heart Lane for the replay and be told match off due to cloud burst!!

1965? Boy was I disappointed. Travelled following week lost 5-1.

[tomogull]

Who remembers travelling by train to London after our epic 3-3 draw with Spurs in the F A Cup only to get to White Heart Lane for the replay and be told match off due to cloud burst!!

1965? Boy was I disappointed. Travelled following week lost 5-1.

Yeah - I wuz there ...... went up by coach. We were literally within spitting distance of White Hart Lane when we heard that the match had been called off. Couldn't get time off from work for the re-arranged match the following week.

[brucie]

Gullscorer - you are actually incorrect. The referee had made his mind up at 9am that the game was going to be called off. I am also given to understand that the groundstaff were of the impression that they could have got the game on if they had been given another hour and a half to work on the pitch.

[Gullscorer]

Gullscorer - you are actually incorrect. The referee had made his mind up at 9am that the game was going to be called off. I am also given to understand that the groundstaff were of the impression that they could have got the game on if they had been given another hour and a half to work on the pitch.

That's very strange. So the ground staff had three hours between 9am and midday to work on the pitch, by which time they would presumably have made the pitch playable. If the ref had made up his mind at 9am why did he wait carry out an inspection at midday? Or if the ground staff felt they could make the pitch playable between 12 and 1.30pm, the referee's decision must have been made taking into account the effects of the afternoon's weather.

[Gullscorer]

Penguins have been given anti-depressants to combat the effects of the bad weather: http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0208/503038-penguins/
It's obviously much worse here than in the Antarctic..

[hector]

Without being privy to the decision making process, how can we be so certain the ref is to blame? It appears we always have an excuse, it's always someone else's fault. It's not in the refs interest to unnecessarily delay a postponement decision. Why would he do that? For giggles?

After that 9am inspection the ref decided the pitch was either a) playable - and he wanted a further check at 12 (bearing in mind the incoming weather). Or b) unplayable - but with sufficient chance of improvement in the following 3 hours.

Whichever way you look at it, the game was in the balance, and yet again the failure of the pitch to drain in the expected manner has caused another Saturday off. It is not the refs fault.

Sensible analysis. That's how I read the situation.

It's nobody's fault. Things like this happen in the winter.

[hector]

You wouldn't be saying that if you'd just schlepped 250 miles from Manchester, hector, would you?

I made my choice not to travel last night, but a few have set off this morning expecting to see a football match, naively maybe.

The game should've been scrubbed last night at the latest for me, but as usual football fans as CUSTOMERS mean nothing at all.

I think, last night, even the night before, with the weather we have had - most would have assumed that the game was likely to fall foul to the weather. If I lived 250 miles away, having looked up weather forecasts, having seen the previous TQY games were postponed and seen that Torquay had taken a battering in the recent storms, well, I would not have even considered getting in my car to drive from Lancashire for a game that was always going to be called off.

It's happened to me before...I have travelled from London to Torquay and the game called off...and that was the days before the internet and mobile phones when it would have been easier to find things out.

Perhaps the game should have been postponed on the Friday night but then had the weather not turned out to be what is was and the game could have been played, people would have been moaning then.

[hector]

I think there is some hysteria on here today. I know its disappointing, but every football fan in the land has been let down by a postponement at one time or another.

The way I see it, this is the situation. The drainage of the pitch has been damaged/compromised following the construction of the Bench. This wasn't evident last season as we had an "average" winter - sure there were some postponements and sticky pitches, but nothing out of the ordinary so it wasn't looked at any further.

Fast forward the clock to this year - we have winter of record rainfall, the like of which has never been seen before and the pitch struggles to cope. Hardly surprising. This highlights the problem with the drainage, but at this stage there is nothing we can do other than cover, work on the pitch and hope for the best. Its not the clubs fault - I just don't think there was the data there to identify a significant drainage problem last year. This is why Yeovil, Exeter etc can get their games on but we can't; neither of them have had significant redevelopment work done so they know they have a long standing, functioning drainage system.

With regards to todays postponement,, I think the flaw was they should have reported exactly what the situation was at 0900 and what they were monitoring. I'm not sure how they assess a pitch, perhaps they should have monitored the rate at which it was drying out. If it had improved between 9 and 12, and the weather was consistent between 12 and 3 then chances are it would have continued getting better. When the weather is like this, its hard to call whats going to happen - for example, near me in Hertfordshire the council pitches were under about 3in of water yesterday afternoon as the river had burst its banks. Went down there today and they have improved sufficiently to the point where they are probably playable! With spells of sun and such a breeze, its not impossible for pitches to dry out.

If the pitch was going to be sticky today, and with the wind, I'm quite glad its off. Its a 6-pointer no question, the last thing we need is it to be reduced to a lottery.

Exactly.

[ferrarilover]

Gullscorer - you are actually incorrect. The referee had made his mind up at 9am that the game was going to be called off. I am also given to understand that the groundstaff were of the impression that they could have got the game on if they had been given another hour and a half to work on the pitch.

Was 80 miles away and privy to the unexpressed thoughts of a stranger? You are Derren Brown and I claim my fifty pence.

Matt.

[royalgull]

Anybody who wants to know why Yoevil's game was on today the answer is here..http://www.ytfc.net/news/article/060214 ... 43387.aspx Chris Hargreaves was on telly last night saying you can these covers for around £15k and the pay back would be in 3 games saved from postponement, surely this is the way forward for our club, we do have covers , but not full pitch covers.

These covers should be compulsory for all FL clubs. This is the 21st century its a massive business even at L2 level its professional sport so to just cross your fingers the ground will be ok isn't good enough in my opinion. Bristol Rovers were advertising for helpers this morning and their game was on, a notoriously bad ground for postponements.

I was at the Barnet non game last season a game which at a lot of grounds would have gone ahead, the problem was in front of the new stand and a part around the centre circle, as it rained one bloke walking across the pitch with a roller was our attempts to sort the pitch out. It was completely embarrassing and that poor soul gave up shortly after before the ref that day called it off.

Like I said the groundstaff of every sporting ground in the country have access to up to the minute forecasts and tufc especially need to get a far quicker response to bad weather cut the BS messages out as they help no one and get some sodding covers for the same cost as paying Karl Hawley a few months wages. I know what I reckon would be better value for the club!!

[Rjc70]

Second longest 'match' thread of 2014 so far. Still a couple more pages to go to beat the Pompey thread.

[Dave_Pougher]

Read most of this thread yesterday, it's interesting on peoples take on where the fault lies. However, due note has to be acknowledged by the club and fans whatever the reason we were the only league two ground, including two in the southwest that was called off.

[nickfrench82]

You're talking bollocks. The forecast was for showers not torrential rain, and with the drying effect of the sun and above average winds there was still a possibility (from the perspective of the 9am inspection) that the game could be on. The ref had no choice in those circumstances but to have another inspection at midday. Oh, and 9am to 3pm is 6 hours not 3..

How you can tell me I'm talking bollocks is a little strange. I watched 4 different forecasts, all with the same weather warnings, read through the Met Office forecasting, plus I have a friend who works on weather data analysis at the Met Office in Exeter, who said that South Devon would be extremely lucky to avoid the 'torrential downpours' heading this was. The forecast was wrong, but that is what it was.

Also, tell me the difference between 9 and 12... As 12pm is when the referee deemed the game to be off, and as such he made his decision based on THREE hours difference.

The paying public also need to be taken into account when making these decisions. It was unfair on the admittedly small number of Bury fans, to have been given hope the game would go ahead, and as it turns out, there was never any chance of it going ahead.

Try wording your responses a little differently. Maybe 'I disagree' would make you sound like less of a tosser than 'you're talking bollocks'

[Gullscorer]

Nick, I very rarely tell people they're talking bollocks, but anyone reading your posts on this thread would understand why. The first line of your post in question, 'My point is that if the pitch was unplayable at 9am, and the forecast was for torrential rain, then what sensible human being, let alone a football league referee, thought the pitch would be ready for a game 3 hours later?', makes it clear that you're talking about the timescale between 9am and midday. So perhaps you need to check the wording of your own comments before writing them to ensure your meaning is clear.

The local met office and BBC forecasts are notoriously unreliable, but I too was continually looking at the local forecasts, and the ones I saw, in which showers, not torrential rain, were forecast, obviously turned out to be somewhat more accurate.

Telling someone they're talking bollocks is somewhat different from telling them they're a tosser. Look in the mirror, and you may realise why I will not be wasting any more time arguing with you.