A&H

Inclement weather

SM

SM

The avuncular one
Bit of an odd one yesterday.

Local game, lone ref. Both teams mid table but under performing so far this season, but looking to push up the table.

On arrival the weather was windy but rain was forecast. Half hour before kick off it starts to rain. Game kicks off and within 10 minutes it's really coming down, I am struggling to look towards one touch line due to fast flying hail hitting me in the eye! The pitch becomes a mud bath very quickly. I call in both captains and warn them that if it gets any worse I would be looking at abandoning.

The away team score 3 good goals but the game is a mess with the wind and mud. I am struggling to keep my footing, players are falling over/sliding in the mud and the hail continues. After 41 minutes I get another direct hit in the eye and I decide enough is enough, someone is going to get hurt and abandon. Obviously away team are unhappy (but behaved well enough in their frustration)

Their point is I should not have allowed the game to kick off. My point was conditions were playable at kick off and while rain was forecast I could not see into the future and call off the game just in case the forecast was correct.

A handful of games locally suffer the same fate as mine, a handful more postponed.

Thoughts or suggestions?
 
The Referee Store
I abandoned after 72 minutes due to the weather, 4-0 to away side and result stands. 2 happy teams and 1 happy assessor.
 
I did thankfully. With the "You should never had kicked off" point I disagree entirely, if the pitch is safe to play on at the start you go for it and if it becomes unplayable you abandon.
 
Conditions were fine when you kicked off. You had no way of knowing how the weather was going to affect matters later. You made the right decision to kick off and by the sounds of things, you made the right decision to abandon.
 
I had a game last night, and though there wasn't any hail like at Stoke v Man Utd, the rain was being driven so fast by the wind into our faces that it might as well have been hail!

Anyway, the strong rain kept coming in bursts through the first half, but the pitch was playing really well. The away team were losing 1-0 and unofficially complaining about the weather and the pitch (funnily enough, only after conceding!) Their manager asked me what I thought of the conditions as we walked off at half time, so instead of explaining to all the eavesdroppers I invited him into our changing room. I said that I had to consider player/officials/spectator safety first, and I believed that wasn't an issue as it was rain not hail. Secondly was the ability to play football, and since the pitch wasn't waterlogged and the wind wasn't Force 10 I saw no reason to abandon the game at half time.

I said to him that I would consciously review the situation every 5 minutes from kick off, and see how far we get. He relayed that to his players and they seemed a bit quieter in the second half.

We got to the 80th minute before the first time that the ball stopped rolling in a puddle, and because the rain had eased slightly and the score was now 3-0, I was determined to finish the game. Even though we were absolutely drenched, I think everyone appreciated a completed game rather than an abandoned one. I suppose we were lucky to be playing at one of the best non-league grounds in the country (Rugby Town FC - Southern League Central)
 
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