Game off... again

After a busy couple of days, I was rather looking forward to Exeter's rescheduled League Two home game against Port Vale yesterday evening. Unfortunately it was a another victim of 'the big freeze'. Not that there was any problem with the pitch. After the purchase of a cover, the playing surface was fine, apparently. The problem was health and safety considerations effecting the stadium as a whole, and the travel conditions for away fans.

Some scorn this kind of thing, recalling the "orange ball" days when games went ahead in near-arctic conditions. I remember a match in the '80s at Dumbarton's historic old ground, Boghead Park [pictured]. I'd travelled up from London, and the final inspection, with snow on the pitch and the skies still dark with menace, was not that long before kick-off. The officials determined that there was no danger to the players and the match went ahead.

Having lost my diaries from that era, I can't recall who we were playing. But I know we lost! These days there's little chance that such a game would go ahead. We can moan, but we've also chosen to live in a more risk-averse and litigious society, it seems. So the caution is inevitable.
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