Cancelled Matches

Cancelled matches are a problem for any league to deal with. Often the league imposes strict rules concerning cancellations stating that there must be at least 24 hours notice given and then the game can only be cancelled with the permission of a League official who must be advised as must both captains.

Circumstances sometimes necessitate cancellations, but, teams should understand that the Home team has the expense of laying on sandwiches which have to be paid for and also in some cases, the pub has to lay on extra bar staff for the night. Some regard should be made to recompense the Home team for this expense in the form of a fine that has to be paid to the league who would then reimburse the team concerned. However if a team is struggling to raise enough players to stay in the league a number of fines may well make them drop out altogether and then they will not pay the fines anyway. League fees and fines are not legally enforceable and the League has to rely on goodwill that they will be paid. Rather than allowing cancelled games willy nilly leagues often insert a rule that even if a team is short of its full quota of players they must still play a match if it is theoretically possible that they could win. This type of clause often means games are played, albeit reluctantly.

Football matches can be a headache when organising games because many pubs are packed with punters on big match nights and have no room for darts. Even if they do the players don’t usually get much peace and their night is spoilt. Some leagues even try to arrange BYE’s on important match nights if the T.V. scheduling is known well in advance. I remember on one match night football was on the T.V. in the pub and we were told we couldn’t start the match till 10pm, so rather than cancel, both teams walked out and found another pub to play in. The Dun Cow at Colton was so pleased to see us they even made some trays of sandwiches while we were playing for us to eat after the match,

There will always be some occasions when even with the best will in the world a full team cannot be fielded by one side or the other and the match has to be cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances. On another night when we were at home it had been raining heavily and the main route to our pub involved going under a little railway bridge where it frequently flooded. We hadn’t thought to warn the opposition about the flood and one car full of players tried to negotiate the water not realising how deep it was. If I remember correctly it was a young lady driving her boyfriends new car with some of the team in. The water was so deep that it not only flooded the electrics, but the water got in the engine and I think the car was a right off.