Clacton Sport

League is forced to cancel cups

By Matt Plummer

12:21pm Thursday 11th March 2010

CHRONIC fixture congestion has led to the cancellation of all cup competitions in the Clacton and District Sunday League.

The historic decision – the first time it has happened in the league’s 44-year history – has been made due to weather problems that have blighted fixture lists since November.

Numerous weekends have been decimated because of frozen and waterlogged pitches. President Barry Guymer, one of the founder members of the league, told the Gazette: “It’s sad and a drastic decision, but we simply didn’t have a choice.

“It’s been absolute chaos this winter, in terms of problems we’ve had with the weather, and there have been so many cancellations.

“There have been seven or eight weekends when no games have taken place and the reality is that we’re simply not going to get all the games played.

“We’ve still got to play some double-header weekends (when teams play two matches on one morning) as it is and we simply can’t fit in all the league and cup matches.

“It’s a real shame for the players because people look forward to playing in the cups.

“It might not sound much but it’s quite an incentive for them to play at FC Clacton’s Rush Green Bowl ground (where the cup finals take place).

“For many of them, it’s the only opportunity they’ll get.”

This is the first time all cup competitions have been scrapped, although the various League Cups were cancelled following a bad winter during the late 1990s.

It means there will be no more games this season in the Premier Division League Cup, the Division One League Cup and the Arthur Vincent Memorial Cup.

Secretary Dennis Bloomfield, who has been involved since the early 1970s, says overseeing the fixture lists has been a real “headache”.

“I wouldn’t like to say how many times we’ve had to redo the fixtures,” he said.

“League games have to take precedence but there’s no way we can fit in all of them and the cup games.”

One piece of good news is that league officials have managed to get a one-week extension for hiring council pitches, meaning the season could end on May 16 instead of May 9.

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