Games in hand/postponements

[pearcey no.1]

Just an idea for ccl comittee when sorting out fixtures next season.(not a dig just an idea)

 

Once again we've had games abandoned cos of the weather,some teams have games in hand due to decent cup runs.

 

Is it an option to play every Saturday and Tuesday where possible at the start of the season? This would possibly free up weeks at the end of the season to play catch up if needed.

 

 

[Don't Blame Me]

What you appear to have overlooked is the early rounds of the FA Vase and FA Cup at the start of the season. What if replays are required at the early stages?

[Chris Clapham]

What you appear to have overlooked is the early rounds of the FA Vase and FA Cup at the start of the season. What if replays are required at the early stages?

 

Fair comment but games could be scheduled in case cup games are not drawn.

The less games we play midweek in deepest winter the better.

[Smudge]

Flexibility is the key,the weather today,thursday,is good.Why cant clubs bring games forward by agreement,cannot surely be impossible to do.Instead Clubs arrange friendlies,which only gets fitness.Rain forecast for this coming Saturday,some games will fall by the wayside for sure.

[Chris Clapham]

Another fair point Smudger.

I wonder if we could have reserve dates for some games.

I reckon Egham v Molesey may have been playable tonight having been postponed last night due to a wet pitch?

[Teflon]

If you look back to the original fixture list sent out to clubs ect, fixtures where planned / played in the early stages of the season even with the possibility of FA Cup & Vase replays required, which then if required are rescheduled.

 

Good job Whitelaw knows what he's doing

[Smudge]

Another fair point Smudger.

I wonder if we could have reserve dates for some games.

I reckon Egham v Molesey may have been playable tonight having been postponed last night due to a wet pitch?

 

Probably not C.C. Egham u18s v Kingstonian u 18s for tomorrow, was called off yesterday.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Smudge

[Jurg78]

Are teams really going to be playing catchup that much this season though? We have only had one game called off and at the moment only have 6 remaining and due to be finished mid/late March which is ridiculously early.

 

It's a hard call though!

[pearcey no.1]

Not at all program editor,I don't know what your FA cup runs were like,but u are 2 games behind guildford,did you not have a spare tuesday back in october which could've been filled,it's not just our lge,Wembley have had 3 fixtures cancelled cos of the weather.other factors such as ground share and local cups affect my idea.

[Observer 89]

I think the league and clubs should try and maximise midweek dates early on in the season wherever possible. I'm unsure on how many midweek fixtures are scheduled for earlier in the season so the league may already attempt to do this to a large extent.

 

Would a better solution to the inevitable pile up of games be to reduce the numbers in the Premier Division from 22 to 20? This would take away four league games a season. 38 league games is plenty when you consider clubs also play in the FA Cup, FA Vase, Senior County Cup, CCL Premier Cup etc. Even if a side goes out in the first round of each cup competition they will have easily played over 40 games a season.

 

Whilst in theory rearranging games at very short notice is a good idea the practicalities of doing so aren't so simple. Say Egham v Molesey wanted to play tonight, would all of the players, coaches, club officials, match officials, tea lady etc be able to make it tonight? Unlikely.

[Smudge]

Windsor were not in the F.A.Cup,the problem is all the Mickey Mouse Cups,that teams enter.All loss leaders that take preference over the League games.

[lazarus]

It's always interesting to have views upon fixture scheduling.

 

The way I go about compiling them is that I firstly allocate the bank holiday fixtures. I then endeavour to compile a full list for each Saturday of the season as best as possible, trying whenever possible to allocate the longer distances to Saturdays, although sometimes, in order to arrive at a full list on any particular Saturday, it is impossible to avoid some more "localish" matches.

 

Once I've done that, I'm left with the remainder which will be midweek fixtures. This season, every single one of these was given an initial date prior to Christmas (the vast majority were before 31 Oct with the latest midweek date used in the initial scheduling being Tue 6 Dec), so as to leave plenty of spare capacity later in the season for matches that would have to be re-arranged.

 

In the "spiel" that goes out with the fixtures, clubs are always reminded that they are welcome to bring any fixture forward, so long as there is mutual agreement between the two clubs concerned.

 

Overall though, I can't really see that there is any more scope for midweek matches in the earlier part of the season than we already have if we want a full fixture list on most Saturdays through the season. It would always be possible to allocate a few more midweek games and then have certain Saturdays either without any fixtures or a reduced programme but the problem is, as always, the unpredictability of the weather.

 

If anyone has any suggestions though, I'm quite willing to consider them.

[Don't Blame Me]

What are the Mickey Mouse Cups that you refer to Smudge? The only cup competitions we have been involved in this season are the Vase, CCL Premier Challenge Cup and B&B Senior Trophy.

 

You are right in saying we wern't in the FA Cup and that was for obvious reasons. Looking back through our fixtures, we had blank Saturdays on 20th August and 3rd September - probably because of FA Cup committments elsewhere. Our first midweek fixture was called off (away v Wembley owing to the public disorder in London). Thus far, Dorking (away twice), Horley Town (away) and Wembley (home) have been postponed owing to the weather. We also had one home league game abandoned in September and a Berks & Bucks cup tie abandoned. Something to do with floodlights and generators!

 

In all seriousness, the bulk of League 1 and League 2 fixtures over the last 2 weekends have fallen foul to the weather.

 

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the fixture list as it stands. An onerous and thankless task yet one for which we are all grateful.

[Krooner]

Thanks for the imput Whitelaw and I think you may well have done that spiel beofre on here. It comes down to weather and cup/vase replays. It is what it is and we have to make the best of it.

[pearcey no.1]

Whitelaw as I know who you are and how hard you work for club and county,I appreciate the input.

[tempestward]

Another fair point Smudger.

I wonder if we could have reserve dates for some games.

I reckon Egham v Molesey may have been playable tonight having been postponed last night due to a wet pitch?

 

A game gets called off on a Tuesday, a working day. Players have probably got arrangements with their employers about leaving early and making time up. They probably do the same on Thursday for training. To get such agreement even from an employer as flexible as mine (DWP) would be pretty difficult at such short notice. In addition the club itself has to make all the arrangements again and the League has to scurry around getting match officials. To say that a game can be set up with such a shortness of notice time is not sensible.

Edited February 15, 2012 by tempestward

[Chris Clapham]

Another fair point Smudger.

I wonder if we could have reserve dates for some games.

I reckon Egham v Molesey may have been playable tonight having been postponed last night due to a wet pitch?

 

A game gets called off on a Tuesday, a working day. Players have probably got arrangements with their employers about leaving early and making time up. They probably do the same on Thursday for training. To get such agreement even from an employer as flexible as mine (DWP) would be pretty difficult at such short notice. In addition the club itself has to make all the arrangements again and the League has to scurry around getting match officials. To say that a game can be set up with such a shortness of notice time is not sensible.

 

I agree it isn't easy to re-arrange at short notice for the reasons you stated and, of course, it takes both clubs to agree. My only thought was knowing the weather to be iffy on Tuesday (ie the thawing and waterlogging of the pitch) a "plan B" could have been arranged say last week? Just a thought and god knows we suffer enough at CWU with the weather!

[Krooner]

How about if a game gets postponed a 2nd time the game is automatically switched ?

[E&E Rich]

I think that is far too difficult and opening a big can of worms Krooner. For example Windsor's game at Wembley was totally unforseeable with the riots and if that game gets pulled later on that season for say, 6 inches of snow, then you have yourself a bit of a dilemma. You'd have to create a whole set of rules to cope with the eventualities, not to mention any games that were abandoned too.

 

Personally, to help with reducing postponements I'd like to see ground gradings taking the pitch itself into consideration a bit more stringently. We all know about certain grounds that struggle to get games on, and as i've said before there's no point satisfying all the criteria in the world only if the green bit in the middle is waterlogged every time someone spills a cup of tea on it. 500 seats to watch rice growing seems a bit pointless!

 

Like many others here I totally agree that whitelaw has the fixtures under full control right now. However, as he has said he is open to suggestions, then the only one I would venture forward is one I've raised here before about the League Cup starting much later in the year and allocating a Saturday at the end of January for the last 32 ties, with the last 16 at the end of Feb etc. That way, some more teams will have an extra something to aim for instead of just league matches. Over two thirds of our teams would have a guaranteed "proper" cup to play in beyond Christmas.

[NICE GUY]

Krooonnntzz 'Cos the club wouldn't get the home crowd advantage.............. ah ha ah ha... !

Edited February 16, 2012 by NICE GUY