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Local Torquay weather forecasts are notoriously unreliable. It would be madness to call the game off today only to find most of the overnight rain has fallen over Dartmoor instead of Plainmoor. There is also rain forecast during the day on Saturday, but the sensible thing would be to have a pitch inspection Saturday morning or midday, as was done for the Morecambe game. It's also possible the overnight rain will be really bad, in which case the game might be called off early Saturday morning. But to call the game off today is not something the referee should be contemplating.

You actually have a point there GS the winds from the coast make it very hard to predict the rain

On this occasion I think we need a VERY dry night, been a nice sunny day so far

Already the forecast for Saturday has improved, with the afternoon now anticipated to be cloudy but dry. Still looks like rain during the night and Saturday morning though, so a midday pitch inspection should settle it, with current prospects slightly worse than they were for the Morecambe game. Fingers crossed..

Gullscorer wrote:Local Torquay weather forecasts are notoriously unreliable. It would be madness to call the game off today only to find most of the overnight rain has fallen over Dartmoor instead of Plainmoor. There is also rain forecast during the day on Saturday, but the sensible thing would be to have a pitch inspection Saturday morning or midday, as was done for the Morecambe game. It's also possible the overnight rain will be really bad, in which case the game might be called off early Saturday morning. But to call the game off today is not something the referee should be contemplating.

If the ref deems it unplayable today then we do not have to pay costs of the travelling Cobblers team and staff. Tomorrow and we do.

If it deemed unplayable 24 hrs before the game by an experienced ref then (regardless of overnight weather) the pitch will still not be fit enough to play on.

and as Matt has already suggested - a mud bath becomes a lottery and I would rather take the other odds than this.

You would also be fearful of the longterm damage this would do to the surface for the rest of the year.

Richinns wrote:If the ref deems it unplayable today then we do not have to pay costs of the travelling Cobblers team and staff. Tomorrow and we do.
If it deemed unplayable 24 hrs before the game by an experienced ref then (regardless of overnight weather) the pitch will still not be fit enough to play on.

Richinns wrote:and as Matt has already suggested - a mud bath becomes a lottery and I would rather take the other odds than this. You would also be fearful of the longterm damage this would do to the surface for the rest of the year.

I don't disagree with you there Richinns, that's all true and obvious. But is the referee required to take account of these additional factors, or must he consider only whether the pitch will be playable? And so, if the pitch is playable today, he cannot call it off today, but have another inspection tomorrow? Surely the Morecambe referee found the pitch doubtful on the Friday and on the Saturday morning, but it passed the inspection midday on Saturday..? And in the event, our boys put in a great performance..

The ref must take in account whether the pitch will be playable 24 hrs later without further rain and if the answer is no then he will call it off today. If there is any doubt he will delay his decision until the morning of the game.

Regardless we have to report the potential of a postponement as early as possible which I am sure we have done

Not looking good!!

http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/W ... story.html

Anyone know if a ref is looking at the pitch today?

"Far from the worst rain ever experienced"

You're doing this deliberately. Surely you're doing it deliberately. Please tell me you're doing it deliberately.

Matt.

Let's not forget that the Met Office's forecasts are about as accurate as economic forecasts from the Bank of Nigeria. It may or may not chuck it down tomorrow. If you want to know whether it will or not rain just throw some dice and you will probably be more accurate than the Met Office.

Go outside. If you get wet, it's raining. If you don't, it's not. Simples.

gullintwoplaces wrote:Let's not forget that the Met Office's forecasts are about as accurate as economic forecasts from the Bank of Nigeria. It may or may not chuck it down tomorrow. If you want to know whether it will or not rain just throw some dice and you will probably be more accurate than the Met Office.

They certainly never take account of Torbay's micro-climate.Unbroken sunshine all afternoon so far.

Behind-the-Gulls wrote: They certainly never take account of Torbay's micro-climate.Unbroken sunshine all afternoon so far.

... and in Ivybridge so not that micro!

Got to understand pitch saturation, doesn't matter how dry it's been to today, if the pitch is holding to much water, any serious amount of rain between now and tomorrow will more than likely render the pitch unplayable. If tonight's weather forecast is correct expect this game to be off.

But of course wait for official announcements to be made.