Fixture chaos as weather hits hard
THE dreadful winter weather has given amateur football officials a real headache as they face fixture chaos before the end of the season.
Waterlogged or frozen pitches have led to a huge number of postponements over the last three months and the backlog was described as "horrendous" this week.
Last weekend the entire Central Scottish Amateur Football League card was wiped out while only a handful of fixtures in the Lanarkshire AFA survived.
Jim Ballantyne, of the Central Scottish AFL, said fewer than one-third of around 200 fixtures scheduled since the turn of the year have been played.
As a result, many teams – especially those successful in cup tournaments – face the prospect of three games a week in April and May.
Mr Ballantyne said: "This season has been worse than usual for call-offs. Since December it's been horrendous and it leaves us trying to squeeze in as many games as possible before the end of May.
"Every effort is made to complete the season before the Scottish Amateur Football Association AGM in early June so that will mean three games a week for some teams when the lighter nights arrive.
"Sometimes the bad weather starts in the autumn, but last year it was okay then. However, we seem to have had bad weather for the best part of three months now."
Motherwell Miners are one of the worst affected sides, having played only 11 games so far in Division 1B.
Mr Ballantyne added: "I know of one club who haven't had a league game since October. That's because cup games take precedence and if a club do well in the cups it has a knock-on effect on their league programme."
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Weather for Bellshill
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
