Sorry, no point comparing to Orient or Dartford. Rain can be really localised - five years ago our house got flooded after a torrential downpour, while others just a few miles away were aware of nothing more than a heavy shower.
.......4 February 1978 against Orient (as was) at Brisbane Road. Abandoned at half time with the score at 0-0. Only other game since then to be abandoned to my knowledge was in May 1990 on a tour of Australia against Wide Bay. I believe this is the 16th ever Charlton game to be abandoned.
Funny how it was abandoned after HT (no refunds), yet also after all the beer and pies had been served up and the fans were ready for the second half !
There are many more conspiracy theories than actual conspiracies. However, its hard not to be a bit cynical.
The sequence of events this afternoon is hard to understand, 1) the referee suspends the game with the rain pouring down and the pitch deteriorating quickly, 2) it continues to rain heavily whilst the ground staff (and Doncaster players) work to clear water from the pitch, 3) the rain abates and the game restarts (very much to my surprise), 4) they get to half time without incident. The pitch is a problem, but it's not dangerous, 5) the half time interval starts with no indication the game won't continue, 6) the ground staff casually fork the pitch, but make no attempt whatsoever to clear excess water, 7) the half time break is nearing its end when the Doncaster players come back on to the pitch, 8) the first sign that the game isn't going to restart, as expected, is when the players go to the wrong end of the pitch to thank their fans, 8) Charlton's players do the same thing and an announcement is eventually made.
Not very impressed. Still, every cloud had a silver lining. We got out of Jail for the second week in succession. If you can't be good, be lucky.
The thing is, the goalmouth that we 'defended' in the 1st half was far far worse than the one at the other end, so in the second half we would have fancied our chances, especially as they were down to 10 men. The area of the pitch near the East Stand was terrible too. It was odd timing though, our subs were all out there practising, then the game got called off.
Sorry, no point comparing to Orient or Dartford. Rain can be really localised - five years ago our house got flooded after a torrential downpour, while others just a few miles away were aware of nothing more than a heavy shower.
Simple facts are:
- heavy rain was forecast days ago; - it was heavy but not torrential; - it has barely rained all summer; - our groundsmen had 30 mins to try to improve matters (unlike other local clubs); - they didn't exactly appear to be overexerting themselves.
I think it's pretty embarrassing to have a game called off for rain at this level. Especially seeing as every other game in London seemed to cope fine enough
Interesting point. I notice just over the Thames at Leyton Orient the game was played to a conclusion, as it was at Dartford.
According to the BBC Orient spent 50k on drainage for their pitch during the summer.
Come on, the pitch on the East Side was ludicrous. Was inches of water and ball was unplayable.
If that's true, then fair enough - I don't sit on that side of the pitch. However, two questions. First, why was no attempt made during the HT interval to clear the water on that side of the ground - that's what they did during the suspension? Second, if the answer is because there was no point, the pitch being unplayable, then why was the game not abandoned at the HT whistle or before?
The decision making looks muddled and, potentially, compromised and conflicted.
There really had not been a HUGE amount of either heavy sustained rain, nor flash flood style downpour. Yet that pitch was not playable and clearly not draining away. I
suspect that might not be the only home game that has WATERLOGGED against it this season.
No need to overanalyse this. I watched the staff, and Colin Powell driving his contraption trying to clear water during the suspension, little progress made, and during the half time break I don't think work over there would have made any difference either. I think Steve Bradshaw came on to the pitch in a man to be reckoned with matrix type raincoat to have words with the ref et al, which may, just may, have been to do with the refund/catering angle, but it was simply cats and dogs in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Funny how it was abandoned after HT (no refunds), yet also after all the beer and pies had been served up and the fans were ready for the second half !
There are many more conspiracy theories than actual conspiracies. However, its hard not to be a bit cynical.
The sequence of events this afternoon is hard to understand, 1) the referee suspends the game with the rain pouring down and the pitch deteriorating quickly, 2) it continues to rain heavily whilst the ground staff (and Doncaster players) work to clear water from the pitch, 3) the rain abates and the game restarts (very much to my surprise), 4) they get to half time without incident. The pitch is a problem, but it's not dangerous, 5) the half time interval starts with no indication the game won't continue, 6) the ground staff casually fork the pitch, but make no attempt whatsoever to clear excess water, 7) the half time break is nearing its end when the Doncaster players come back on to the pitch, 8) the first sign that the game isn't going to restart, as expected, is when the players go to the wrong end of the pitch to thank their fans, 8) Charlton's players do the same thing and an announcement is eventually made.
Not very impressed. Still, every cloud had a silver lining. We got out of Jail for the second week in succession. If you can't be good, be lucky.
Just what do you think forking a pitch does if not 'clear excess water'? I have forked the pitch at The Valley, a number of years back admittedly but a well placed and levered fork allows the surface water to pass through a capped surface down to the land drains.
Having said that I wasn't there and I wouldn't be surprised if the forks were not as well placed as they might have been or as vigorously worked if the scores were reversed.
I noticed a manhole cover in the road surface of Harvey Gardens behind the North stand had grass cuttings around the edge of it. Would explain why no pitch surface water was draining away if the main sewer in Harvey Gardens is blocked further up the run.
No need to overanalyse this. I watched the staff, and Colin Powell driving his contraption trying to clear water during the suspension, little progress made, and during the half time break I don't think work over there would have made any difference either. I think Steve Bradshaw came on to the pitch in a man to be reckoned with matrix type raincoat to have words with the ref et al, which may, just may, have been to do with the refund/catering angle, but it was simply cats and dogs in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My issue is whether they could have prepared the pitch differently given they knew heavy rain was forecast, and presumably they know which parts of the pitch drain worse than others.
Assuming they refund the fans for their tickets, the abandonment will cost the club about £50-75k by my estimations. If I owned the club I would be asking some important questions (and the answers may well be that they could indeed have done nothing more).
it was totally waterlogged in north east corner. not surprising since we have had heavy rain in charlton since about 2.00 last night and didn't stop until the point it was called off.
Was the pitch was unplayable? Yes, clearly the ball was not moving correctly especially on the East side
Why was the game suspended, re-started and then abandoned? Only the Ref can say. Once he had suspended the game it was ridiculous to re-start it with the condidtions just as bad but it is his decision not the managers. If he said "its the same for both sides and Donny are coping" and just carried on then fair enough but once he stopped the game it made no sense to re-start
Should the pitch been better prepared? Don't now but there were two options on the table in the summer. One the same treatment as the year before and one 8k more to resolve the problems we had last season. We went with the cheaper option. Alegedly, of course.
nya. I think I understand where you're coming from in terms of the thoroughness of approach by the club. However I don't know if you were there today, I was, and taking away the context of the scoreline, the club ownership, pitch technology and so on, to me it was simply unfortunate, and a once every fifty years event. There are loads of other failings at Charlton, but not having the pitch sorted well enough for the rain of today isn't really one of them.
It seems the worst weather in London has been along the Thames, if you see the pics of the £1.5m outfield at the Oval which was flooded, you'll know how bad it was.
These things happen, but there must always be someone to blame
I was a couple of miles down the road at Park View Road watching Erith & Belvedere. When I heard what was going on at The Valley I had a walk on the pitch at half time. No puddles anywhere. Ground was firm. During the match the ball rolled perfectly in all parts of the pitch. Players didn't lose their footing once.
Not too far away Thurrock's game was abandoned. So Charlton wasn't the only one.
Just to correct an emerging conspiracy theory; conditions on the back of the match day ticket state- "Tickets are not valid for re-use and no refunds will be made in respect of abandoned games". I presume that means I have to pay again then, but so be it. I was glad to be there to see that!
Was there a pitch inspection before original KO. at 3pm The ground looked pretty bad to me as Ben H tried to bounce the ball before KO after the break. Surprissed that the Valley pitch did not drain off better, the issue was that it was not just the Charlton goal mouth ? Paddy's face when they dragged a brush over the goal mouth looked like thunder! Mick Everett came over holding his strides up not to get them wet, and I saw Steve Bradshaw down there on the pitch. The football..... well that was another matter.
The weather forecast this morning stated that some areas would get torrential rain, but others might get a lot less. The rain seems to have been very localised and there was obviously a lot more in Charlton than other areas. On the news this evening, pictures were shown of flooding in Southend.
Whilst we were driving home, we experienced torrential rain to the west side of Maidstone, however it was much drier to the east. Looking at the rain radar you can see that there is a fairly narrow band of heavy rain, which would account for some matches being unaffected, whilst ours was abandoned.
Comments
- heavy rain was forecast days ago;
- it was heavy but not torrential;
- it has barely rained all summer;
- our groundsmen had 30 mins to try to improve matters (unlike other local clubs);
- they didn't exactly appear to be overexerting themselves.
I wasn't, but virtually everyone there seems to be saying the pitch was badly waterlogged.
What difference does the fact that rain was forecast make? We're we supposed to build a roof?
The decision making looks muddled and, potentially, compromised and conflicted.
There really had not been a HUGE amount of either heavy sustained rain, nor flash flood style downpour. Yet that pitch was not playable and clearly not draining away. I
suspect that might not be the only home game that has WATERLOGGED against it this season.
I think Steve Bradshaw came on to the pitch in a man to be reckoned with matrix type raincoat to have words with the ref et al, which may, just may, have been to do with the refund/catering angle, but it was simply cats and dogs in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Having said that I wasn't there and I wouldn't be surprised if the forks were not as well placed as they might have been or as vigorously worked if the scores were reversed.
Assuming they refund the fans for their tickets, the abandonment will cost the club about £50-75k by my estimations. If I owned the club I would be asking some important questions (and the answers may well be that they could indeed have done nothing more).
Was the pitch was unplayable? Yes, clearly the ball was not moving correctly especially on the East side
Why was the game suspended, re-started and then abandoned? Only the Ref can say. Once he had suspended the game it was ridiculous to re-start it with the condidtions just as bad but it is his decision not the managers. If he said "its the same for both sides and Donny are coping" and just carried on then fair enough but once he stopped the game it made no sense to re-start
Should the pitch been better prepared? Don't now but there were two options on the table in the summer. One the same treatment as the year before and one 8k more to resolve the problems we had last season. We went with the cheaper option. Alegedly, of course.
These things happen, but there must always be someone to blame
Not too far away Thurrock's game was abandoned. So Charlton wasn't the only one.
The ground looked pretty bad to me as Ben H tried to bounce the ball before KO after the break.
Surprissed that the Valley pitch did not drain off better, the issue was that it was not just the Charlton goal mouth ?
Paddy's face when they dragged a brush over the goal mouth looked like thunder!
Mick Everett came over holding his strides up not to get them wet, and I saw Steve Bradshaw down there on the pitch.
The football..... well that was another matter.
Whilst we were driving home, we experienced torrential rain to the west side of Maidstone, however it was much drier to the east. Looking at the rain radar you can see that there is a fairly narrow band of heavy rain, which would account for some matches being unaffected, whilst ours was abandoned.