Cancelled games irk

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 40

Cancelled games irk

Tempers are heated in Christchurch soccer circles this week at the cancellation of the two Broadlands Southern League fixtures on Saturday while lower grade matches were played. Many leading Christchurch coaches and players are incensed at what they see as a ludicrous order of priorities, and Tom Randles, player-coach of Technical, was not even informed that the match against Invercargill Thistle had been postponed. He luckily heard it on the radio.

The other game was Shamrock v. Cashmere.

They feel the postponement, which is far from the first this season, is not only frustrating to teams — Technical’s game on Saturday will be the first for a month — but it is harming the image of the game and spectator appeal. Because these are the main games after the Rothmans League, they are correspondingly the next best supported and support is largely a matter of habit. If a spectator knows there is always a

game at English Park on Saturday it becomes somefiling of a routine to attend. They say overhead conditions are irrelevant, only the pitch is important, and that sometimes matches are postponed when the ground has been playable.

Many feel that Mr Trevor Gotterineyer, the Canterbury Football Association official responsible for deciding the state of the pitch, has sometimes cancelled without fully investigating the possibility of transferring to other grounds.

The southern region coach, Mr Doug Moore, to whom many of the complaints have been made, intends to protest strongly to the C.F.A.

“To me, unless a pitch is under water or obliterated by snow, or so badly fogbound that neither the markings or either goal can be seen from halfway, the game should be played.-

“The southern league should be inviolate. It is one of the foundations of football; Start messing about with it and people will lose interest or be driven away,” Mr Moore said.

He suggested the solution would be for the match referee to decide half an hour before kick-off unless one of the teams was travelling a long distance. Then the referee, or another if he had to travel, should decide the night before, as in England. “You cannot cancel just because the ground might be churned up. Soccer is a winter game, and you expect a percentage of matches to be played on wet or muddy surfaces —it is part of the game,” Mr Moore said.

Mr Gottermeyer said English Park was definitely unfit for play on Saturday, and because of the southern league rule that all grounds must have shower facilities it could not be transferred.

He said lower grade matches had to be played ahead of league games because some competitions were not ending until October 9 anyway, while the southern league would still be finished by September 25.

Soccer was often accused of encroaching on to summer sports and the C.F.A, did not want to delay the soccer finish.