One third postponed

Greensnet Editor
Mon 19 Mar 2001, 13:45

Hendon's postponement against Aldershot Town on Saturday means that, for one reason or another, the Greens have had exactly one-third of their 42 Ryman League Premier Division matches postponed this season, 8 home and 6 away.

Saturday morning's news came as no surprise, especially as 8 out of the other 10 Premier Division games (and 35 out of 43 in the Ryman League) were called off. In fact, none of Hendon's 6 teams actually managed to play, the Reserves and all 4 youth teams having matches called off. Hendon's first team have played 38 matches (23 League and 15 Cup) so far this season, but had 24 matches postponed due to the weather, only one of these was due to a frozen pitch, rather than a waterlogged pitch.

On the entirely hopeful assumption that tonight's game with Purfleet goes ahead without a hitch, it will leave Hendon with 18 Ryman League Premier Division fixtures to play in 43 days (or 6 full weeks + 1 day) before the end of the season. This means the Greens will have 2 games in every midweek bar one until the first week of May, assuming, of course, that not only are there no more postponements and Hendon's remaining opponents have free days when Hendon do. A worst-case scenario would mean matches on consecutive days in one week.

The Reserves meanwhile have had it even worse with 20 games played and 22 dates postponed. The youth teams, whose schedules are far less taxing are, nonetheless, also struggling, but they have alleviated much of their problems by playing double-headers. Two weekends ago, all four teams completed pairs of games.