Post by hendo on May 3, 2020 11:02:58 GMT
POSTPONEMENTS
Before the whole thing was called off this season, we’d already had a bucket-load of games postponed thanks to the Biblical rainfall, with two matches having to be rescheduled three times (and one of those still never happened). Bad, yes, but not bad enough to get into any record books.
Back in the 1963 FA Cup, Coventry were drawn against Lincoln City. The match was postponed 15 times before Jimmy Hill’s army eventually triumphed 5-1.
A pretty impressive number, but nothing compared to the postponement record holder, Inverness Thistle, whose 1979 Scottish Cup tie with Falkirk took 30 attempts to get played.
All the above cases were down to bad weather but a far more interesting reason for last-minute postponement occurred before the Eastern Counties League clash between Kings Lynn and Gorleston. The local farmer had been a little over-enthusiastic with his muck spreading on the adjacent field and created such a horrific stench that the referee threw up on arrival, got back in his car and went home.
Equally delightful, back in August 1999, Torquay’s match with Portsmouth in the Worthington Cup was called off shortly before kick-off following an urgent Police request. Bomb threat? Building collapse? No. The local Force had just spotted that the game coincided with a total eclipse of the sun and they were worried about the light. Apparently only having a 72-year warning was not sufficient to complete the necessary paperwork in time.
In the same vein, some fans found it hard to accept the decision to postpone the FA Cup match between Frome Town and Chippenham in September 2015 because it clashed with the town’s annual cheese festival. Personally, I find it very reasonable. I’m often torn between a Saturday afternoon on the terraces or trolling the dairy counter at Lidl in the hope of a bit of free Edam on a cocktail stick.
Obviously, when writing about postponements, one should consider reasons why many matches begin, only to be abandoned later. Deteriorating weather, serious injury or floodlight failure are the usual causes but sometimes the reasons are little more bizarre.
Two year ago, in Greece, Paok president Ivan Savvidis, furious after his side's goal was adjudged to have been offside, stormed onto the pitch with a gun and two bodyguards to confront the referee. This caused the opposition, AEK Athens, to immediately walk off the pitch, an early bath for everyone and the suspension of the entire league for the season.
My personal abandonment favourite, however, is from 1954 during a Fiorentina fixture against local rivals Pistoiese when UFOs were spotted over the stadium in Florence just after half-time. The referee's match report stated that “spectators saw something in the sky which caused sufficient disruption to abandon the match’.
The official explanation published later suggested that the phenomenon was caused by migrating spiders. ..Yeah, understandable confusion. I hate finding a spaceship in the bath.
We can learn from this incident and, in the future, if we are ever losing with a few minutes to go, I suggest we all point to the heavens and scream: ‘They’re coming! Save yourselves!’ and rush for the exit waving our arms like extras in a Godzilla movie.
Before the whole thing was called off this season, we’d already had a bucket-load of games postponed thanks to the Biblical rainfall, with two matches having to be rescheduled three times (and one of those still never happened). Bad, yes, but not bad enough to get into any record books.
Back in the 1963 FA Cup, Coventry were drawn against Lincoln City. The match was postponed 15 times before Jimmy Hill’s army eventually triumphed 5-1.
A pretty impressive number, but nothing compared to the postponement record holder, Inverness Thistle, whose 1979 Scottish Cup tie with Falkirk took 30 attempts to get played.
All the above cases were down to bad weather but a far more interesting reason for last-minute postponement occurred before the Eastern Counties League clash between Kings Lynn and Gorleston. The local farmer had been a little over-enthusiastic with his muck spreading on the adjacent field and created such a horrific stench that the referee threw up on arrival, got back in his car and went home.
Equally delightful, back in August 1999, Torquay’s match with Portsmouth in the Worthington Cup was called off shortly before kick-off following an urgent Police request. Bomb threat? Building collapse? No. The local Force had just spotted that the game coincided with a total eclipse of the sun and they were worried about the light. Apparently only having a 72-year warning was not sufficient to complete the necessary paperwork in time.
In the same vein, some fans found it hard to accept the decision to postpone the FA Cup match between Frome Town and Chippenham in September 2015 because it clashed with the town’s annual cheese festival. Personally, I find it very reasonable. I’m often torn between a Saturday afternoon on the terraces or trolling the dairy counter at Lidl in the hope of a bit of free Edam on a cocktail stick.
Obviously, when writing about postponements, one should consider reasons why many matches begin, only to be abandoned later. Deteriorating weather, serious injury or floodlight failure are the usual causes but sometimes the reasons are little more bizarre.
Two year ago, in Greece, Paok president Ivan Savvidis, furious after his side's goal was adjudged to have been offside, stormed onto the pitch with a gun and two bodyguards to confront the referee. This caused the opposition, AEK Athens, to immediately walk off the pitch, an early bath for everyone and the suspension of the entire league for the season.
My personal abandonment favourite, however, is from 1954 during a Fiorentina fixture against local rivals Pistoiese when UFOs were spotted over the stadium in Florence just after half-time. The referee's match report stated that “spectators saw something in the sky which caused sufficient disruption to abandon the match’.
The official explanation published later suggested that the phenomenon was caused by migrating spiders. ..Yeah, understandable confusion. I hate finding a spaceship in the bath.
We can learn from this incident and, in the future, if we are ever losing with a few minutes to go, I suggest we all point to the heavens and scream: ‘They’re coming! Save yourselves!’ and rush for the exit waving our arms like extras in a Godzilla movie.