NEWBURY                    3

SEDGLEY PARK           3

(Match abandoned after 21 minutes) 

National League Division One 

“TAKE the weather with you” was the advice advocated by Crowded House on the in-coach sound system as Sedgley headed south: unfortunately it went unheeded and the Tigers neglected to take the un-seasonal dry weather in north Manchester with them on the trip down to Berkshire to face the Newbury Blues.

As a result the game was hit by a mini monsoon the type of which that can rarely have be seen in the Royal County for many a moon and the game was understandably called off by referee Mark Wilson in the 21^st minute, with conditions underfoot dangerous.

“With the injury list we still have the last thing we needed was any more players slipping and either twisting ankles or knees or worse breaking bones, so it was the only sensible decision to make,” said Sedgley Director of Rugby, Tim Fourie.

An hour before kick-off the rain was nothing more than a slight drizzle and the Monks Lane surface looked eminently playable. However, by the time both sides emerged for their pre-game warm-up the drizzle was rapidly developing into a downpour and the pitch looked incapable of draining the excess surface water away and it beginning to pool.

Both sides therefore warmed-up on adjacent pitches; but by the time 3pm arrived the downpour was gathering strength. As a result both sides had no option but to tailor their style of play, which invariably meant kicking for the spaces behind the defences and then when in possession picking-and-driving downfield.

Sedgley appeared to have adopted better and they were awarded a penalty on eight minutes, but Phil Jones was unable to convert his kick into three points. But from Newbury’s resulting 22-metre drop out the Tigers drove the ball back at the home defence with drives from Fourie and Ian Voortman gaining ground before the ball was spun left to right to skipper Jimmy Ponton. As play was brought to a halt Newbury were penalised for being offside and this time Jones’ kick from the Newbury 22 went straight between the uprights and the visitors led 0-3 after 10 minutes.

Just six minutes later and the downpour began to develop into something much more sinister, with the rain so thick it began to resemble fog. At this point Mr Wilson consulted both captains but the decision to play on was agreed.

The depth of the standing water was illustrated by Sedgley Number 8 Jon Skurr who, seeing a loose ball aquaplaned a good 20 metres to snaffle it up, looking for all the world like a body surfer on a Cornish beach.

Newbury regained possession and were in turn awarded a penalty for Sedgley being offside, and stand-off Tim Walsh kicked successfully to make the score 3-3 as the first quarter drew to a close.

However, a minute later Mr Wilson called both skippers and coaches together and told them he was abandoning the game. By this time all four corners were totally under water and the pitch was beginning to resemble more and more a South East AsianRice paddy field. The game will now be re-scheduled for a date yet to be fixed.

On the way back up north the in-coach entertainment system once more belted out the Crowded House classic, although perhaps a more appropriate selection may have been Creedence Clearwater Revival’s bayou rocker, “Who’ll stop the rain?”  

NEWBURY: Roberts, Rees, Ireland, James, Nutt, Walsh, M. Simpson-Daniel, Faulkner, Cooper, Carter, Smith, Hayter, Damudamu, Morgan, Brown. Replacements: Dalgleish, Bingham, Ashcroft-Leigh, Barden, Radbourne, Gibson, Bruce. Penalties: Walsh (20).