Duty of care to players is blown away after so many storms
It’s fair to say we’ve had a wet winter. How wet? This wet - England saw a record amount of rainfall in the 18 months to March. Some 1,695.9mm of rain fell from October 2022 to March 2024, the highest level for any 18-month period in England since comparable data began in 1836, according to analysis of Met Office provisional statistics.
That beat the previous record of 1,680.2mm, which had been set only the month before and covered the 18 months from September 2022 to February 2024.
Kathleen was recently the 11th named storm of the 2023/24 season, and only the second to reach the letter K after Storm Katie in March 2016.
Hampshire, you won’t be surprised to learn, was just one of the counties in England that saw at least double the amount of rainfall last month than is typical for March.
As a result, some non-league football clubs have been forced to shoehorn a lot of fixtures into very short periods in order to get the season completed.
There seems to be some Football Association intransigence, with officialdom refusing to allow an extension of just an extra week.
This has led to Truro having
We’ve seen the highest rainfall level for any 18-month period in England since 1836
to shoehorn eight ‘home’ National League South games into just 15 days this month. As an added ‘bonus’, all of those games are being played at Gloucester City FC – a 400-mile round trip from Cornwall’s only city – due to the fact their new home ground is still being built.
More locally, Fareham Town’s Wessex League game at Bournemouth Poppies on Saturday was their sixth in 13 days. The Creeksiders now face six more in 11 days this month, including matches tonight and tomorrow.
That’s not a first – they did exactly the same last week!
Another Wessex club, Fleetlands, are also playing tonight and tomorrow – part of a seven league games in 13 days run. And the Coptermen, managed by ex-Pompey favourite Steve Claridge, could then be involved in the play-offs.
Oh, and they could still have three Portsmouth Senior Cup ties to play as well.
And lest we forget, these are part-time players, with full-time day jobs! Somewhere, the FA’s duty of care to players seems to have fallen by the wayside.