The Ref Stop

Dartford v Hampton & Richmond

p4yno

p4yno

Well-Known Member
I was at the Dartford v Hampton & Richmond game today in the National League South... courtesy of a friend who sponsored the match. I am still amazed firstly the game actually started and when it did it wasn’t abandoned. As you can see from the images the amount of water of the pitch was substantial. The ball wasn’t rolling in many areas.

On a positive no one got hurt and Dartford won it in the 94th minute. It would have been interesting should one of the teams 1-0 up and the pressure on the opposition on the referee to abandon would have been interesting.
 

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The Ref Stop
CapnBloodbeard said:
Looks like the game would have been a farce from the amount of standing water....
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Gi ower...... football has survived for 170 years with a bit of mud and rain, footballers should be able to adapt to Mother Natures moods. The farce would have been calling it off!!
 
Don't think I've ever had the opportunity to start a match with the pitch in that condition. Certainly had one on a renowned local set of pitches for a College game. Ten minutes in it was a gloopy, muddy mess......did we finish? Of course we did!
 
Considering half the fixture list this weekend has been wiped out due to waterlogged pitch, I kind of wish we could play in those conditions.

I had a manager apologising to me about freestanding water on the touchline last week. It wasn't even on the playing area. I said it didn't matter, it was never anywhere near affecting the ground. No need to apologise, we'll just play on the (safe) pitch and anyone getting throw ins there will have to get their ankles wet.

Ah well, putting my feet up for the Easter weekend then. I see rain is forecast so I wonder if my Tuesday fixtures will go ahead?
 
If one of the big factors is player safety and so on, and, nobody was hurt?
That aside, I would play that, of course with provision I may rethink that as the game goes on
 
Don't do much OA footy, but no way I would be going ahead with the game at youth level on a pitch like that.

Early in my refereeing days, went ahead with a youth game on a pitch, which thinking back could only be described as a serious health risk, as I felt pressured by both managers and the home team chairman. Fortunately the game was incident and injury free, but from that day vowed never to allow myself to be pressured in that way again. Player safety has to come first and if that means upsetting a few people because they had a wasted journey, then so be it!
 
Sheffields Finest said:
What’s unsafe about that? I accept its not ideal but I’m struggling with an unsafe call!
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1. If the ball hits a patch of standing water and stops then you could have players overshooting (a sliding tackle for example) when the ball stops unexpectedly and resulting in an injury.
2. Boggy ground makes it much more likely that a player may twist a knee/ankle if their foot gets "stuck"
3. Conditions like that are very likely to make it difficult for players to adequately control tackles etc.
4. Conditions like that make it much more likely that players may slip which could result in injury.
5. If they haven't got their arm bands with them any player who can't swim could get into difficulties.

I'm sure other posters could add more reasons why these conditions could pose a safety risk.

Obviously it all comes down to the opinion of the referee on the day, but I wouldn't hesitate to call a game off with a pitch in that state.
 
To be fair it was only a pic of one section of the pitch and most of the standing water on the close up was behind the corner flag, although the goal mouth was a bog, I think maybe you would need to be there yourself, obviously the referee had time to walk the pitch etc, maybe it deteriorated as the game went on, we just don’t know.

On a side note this last month or two has been a ******* for weather talk about disrupted Callander!
If it’s not sub zero freeze your nuts off it’s a pitch covered in snow if it’s not snow it’s aqua sports as per the thread.

I certainly chose a sh*t time of year to become a ref.
 
If we never started a game based on IFS then we would never play
Do you get injuries on a perfect park? Of course
 
You could make a similar list for a dust bowl in August. Sorry, I don’t agree with any of those, sounds like excuses not to play not let’s get on with it. I know on what surface I’d prefer to play on!
 
Ironically I’d class a frozen pitch in similar dangerousness to an August bone hard pitch and we don’t bat an eyelid. I get the standing water argument for paying customers but at parks level it’s a pretty silly argument as none have professional groundsmen and it’s down to adapt and overcome.....
 
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For me, frozen is the biggie, being selfish, I dont want to run and fall on ice
Mud, no bother, I have been to rugby games where you cant tell which team is which and nobody cares
 
Nothing to do with safety. Very real chance of a 'goal' getting stuck in the sludge rather than rolling over the line
 
So the players should kick it harder, or elevate it
Adapt
Same as when its windy, good chance a shot on goal might be blown wide?
Or in baked summer when the perfect downward header bounces so perfect it goes over the bar
 
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