Chelmsford postponement (2025)

Feel for the away team and supporters (plus our players and fans who had travelled some distance).
I was surprised to hear that the pitch had passed yesterday's inspection and assume that it was completely covered. The overnight forecast was for very low temperatures again.

Given how few saturday home games we've had I bet we could have done with the money.

I checked the website before I left home at 1.15pm. If it was called off at noon, it would have been good to get the information earlier.

Other clubs (in particular Truro) have been rightly criticised for teams and their fans travelling long distances only to suffer late postponements. I’m very surprised this has happened as I think our club has usually been very good at avoiding similar. Perhaps the ref is the one really to blame…

The forecast was for sub zero temperatures overnight so even with it expected to rise to 3 degrees by midday it was asking a lot for a sufficient thaw.
For me the bottom line is that decisions need to be made long before visiting teams and fans are scheduled to arrive, ideally before they depart. So for local trips, such as to Weston, the decision can be left to a couple of hours before ko to enable ground staff to fork/mop up after a deluge or in this case for a thaw. But for long distant trips, as with today’s visitors, the decision needs to be taken by 10 am at the latest. This has been the case in some of our away fixtures in recent seasons with a couple of notable exceptions. I remember how annoyed the Club were with a wasted trip down to Cornwall. Another was to Welling when the ref called the game off at 2.50 pm but the ground had become waterlogged only an hour previously.
Hopefully the Club will make a statement in the coming days.

Very unhappy with the way yesterdays postponement was handled. There needs to be an honest statement from the club and I am sure James Carlin will take this on board.
We were told the MATCH referee had inspected on Friday and deemed the pitch playable but there would be a further inspection on Saturday, no time given.
On Saturday all the indications were that the match was still on. Chelmsford thought the game was on. Nothing indicating any different until this very late announcement at something like 13.15.
If the pitch was playable on Friday it was no colder on Friday night than earlier in the week, I don't understand how the pitch had suddenly become unplayable. I believe it was a young referee, what may have happened is that the ref was happy but when they went out and looked at it on arrival with the linesmen they started putting doubts in her mind (I think it was a she) and she buckled.
Maybe the delay in the announcement was because the club tried to get her to change her mind, understandable.
What happened needs to be clarified, poor communication or ref who changed her mind at the last moment?
If I was anything to do with Chelmsford I would be livid about this, some of our supporters seem to be just accepting this but I am sure their attitude would be different if they were in the position of Chelmsford and their supporters.
Very unhappy about this, not a good day. Over to you James, several of our supporters travelled a long way as well including my son.

Must admit I just turned up at the ground as usual. It hadn't occurred to me to keep checking whether it was still on.
The problem is that the poplar stand shields the pitch from the sun and it is the sun that thaws it out. At 12 the sun has only just got on the top end. It may well be the ground would have been thawed by 3 as it had the day before but no one could be sure.
Possibly they hung about for a period to see how it went and I assume insufficient progress was made so it had to be called off.

Do you know if the part of the pitch deemed unsuitable during yesterday’s inspection was on the Popular Side? I can recall many games being postponed at the turn of the year because the sun never rises enough for that touch line area to thaw sufficiently. However, unless the whole pitch has been covered this week I would expect it to have been frozen throughout.
This is what a hoped for statement from the Club will address although they may want to wait for the referee’s report, as I believe was the case with the Slough debacle last season.
Will be interesting to learn if we have to cover Chelmsford’s expenses for the rearranged fixture. I think that any of their fans who make the effort deserve at least free admission and a pint.

We don't usually cover the whole pitch. As you say it is the top end that is covered.
I presume it was not frozen on Friday afternoon and the decision was made not to cover as the weather prognosis was no worse.
But there is a surprising difference in microclimates around bath. Certainly where we live on the south side it was worse yesterday than on Friday but further down the hill was balmy by comparison.

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#factsnotflags

There needs to be an honest statement from the club as a lot of people were put to inconvenience on Saturday after all indications up until 13.15 had indicated the match was on. What went wrong? Were there doubts about the match that were not fully communicated? Did the ref Suddenly change her mind?
This all seems to be being accepted too easily by some, I am sure it would be very different if we had travelled to Chelmsford and the game was called off very late after being told it was on.
I just want to know the full circumstances around the late postponement on Saturday, is that asking too much in what is supposed to be a fans owned club?

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#factsnotflags

Everyone is entitled to their views and opinions and I always say things as I see it. In this case, in very general terms without going into specifics again, I see it that Saturdays postponement should have been better managed.
Nothing more to say except that hopefully some lessons have been learnt by all involved that may make a call off less than 2 hours before kick off (after all previous indications were that the game was on) less likely in the future when the temperature is low.

I think everyone will agree that the club has excelled in recent years over keeping fans in the loop but it’s not surprising that so many are annoyed by what happened on Saturday. I have heard conflicting rumours about the time of the inspection(s) prior to the match. Did one take place early on Saturday morning before Chelmsford team and fans would have departed (and if not, why not? The website announcing of the postponement makes no mention of an early inspection) or was there only one around midday? And if there was a delay in announcing the postponement after the decision was taken by the ref, why was that?
Yes, the late postponement of the game at Welling was frustrating but fully expected considering the biblical downpour in the preceding hour. That wasn’t a case of failing to hold an early morning inspection to save us departing. I can recall a similar incident at Twerton (v Merthyr?) back in the Southern League days.

I will take the points raised on here and mention to the relevant people at the club in case they haven't seen it.

I remember the Merthyr postponement. It was late and I, and a lot of people, we're already at TP. It's impossible to control nature.

Perhaps if after a Friday inspection there is doubt about a pitch being playable on the Saturday, that should be enough to call it off for the sake of players and supporters. There are other cases such as fog or a deluge where this cannot be forseen, but in freezing conditions it is very inconvienient for all concerned to travel only to have to travel home again. One could also claim the extra petrol used and other associated factors are another reason not to take chances on a pitch being playable.

Anyone who has been at the club for more than a season will know that the pop side is a bugger to defrost.