Big freeze May force late finish to season

Published 13 Jan 2010 10:00 0 Comments

READING'S Sunday League footballers could yet see their season finish after their professional counterparts in the wake of the recent big freeze.

The Reading & District Sunday League has been hit particularly hard by the poor weather throughout December and January - and league officials are contemplating extending the season by three weeks should the fixture pile-up caused by the rash of postponements continue.

There has been just one full programme in the league since the end of November - on December 13 - and Wednesday morning's snow flurry looks set to have put paid to the slim chances of any fixtures going ahead this weekend.

And that could mean that some clubs will start February having played a paltry five league games.

It is a situation league officials are used to dealing with as recently as last year, when icy weather in February caused big problems for some of the more successful clubs.

But League secretary Dave Marshall confirmed that the earlier intervention of the poor weather this season, has seen the officers already making contingency plans to get things finished.

And one of those could see the season extended by three weeks from its original finish date on May 2, to some to a conclusion on May 23 - the day after the Champions League final.

He said: "We have already discussed it among ourselves, and we are not at the absolutely drastic stage at the moment.

"It has been worked out that we have another 17 available Sundays before the scheduled end of the season.

"We are going to wait until the end of the month, see what situation the fixtures are in and make a decision then.

"One of the options we have this year, because we have no presentation night, would be to extend the season until May 23, if we were in a drastic situation.

"We have already arranged a meeting with Reading Borough Council for the end of January to discuss that, and we would hope to get permission from the Berks & Bucks FA as we did last year.

"As well as the three extra weekends, that would give us an extra seven midweek dates, and if we could not get the season finished in that time frame then something is seriously wrong."

The League's efforts to clear the fixture backlog have not been helped by their clubs' continued success in the county cup competitions.

In the Berks & Bucks Junior Cup, there are still four third round ties - which should have taken place on December 13 - involving Reading sides to be played.

Deadlines for that competition, and the priority it takes over league action, means that any club advancing to the quarter-finals of that competition will not be able to play any catch-up league fixtures until mid-February at the earliest.

And Marshall admitted: "The county cups do cause us quite a problem because of the need to keep rearranging those games.

"It is good news for the league that our sides do so well in those competitions - and they have had a great record recently.

"But when the county games start to get postponed, it means that the same teams are queuing up to play the games against those sides by the end of the season.

"And if they then do well in our league cups as well - which have to be finished by the date we have already booked for the finals - then their league programme can suffer."

The problem some sides might face with the extended season is the overlap with the local cricket season, which is due to get underway on May 8.

Several privately-owned grounds are also used for the summer game, and Marshall admitted that in those circumstances clubs may have to look for alternatives.

Although he reassured teams that a return to the dreaded double-headers was very unlikely.

He said: "Clubs who play on private grounds may have to play their home games on council pitches. But double-headers is a very, very last resort.

"We left the possibility of them in our constitution, but no-one likes doing it, and if we get the extension we have no intention of having them this season."

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