Wednesday 25 June 2014

Weather and Cancellations

Hello - quite the storm last night. We had to cancel due to safety. There is a little confusion about how soccer is regulated in our area. Our club is one of the larger in the area and we have divided it into two distinct parts - Travel and House League.

We control and have autonomy over the House League side. This covers the Timbits, u7 and u9.  We are allowed to cancel due to extreme weather and can decide ahead of games. We will try to make that decision in a timely fashion.  Last night was a bit of a surprise as at 5PM it was sunny and getting quite warm and at 6PM the storm moved in. By 7PM it was safe again. Quite unusual, and sudden.

We do not have the ability to control the Travel teams in the same way.  We must travel to the game and only the Referee on the pitch at the time the game is supposed to start has the ability to decide whether the game is a go or not. It is controlled by the Ontario Soccer Association's rules. Generally they play if it is deemed to be safe. Unsafe conditions would be lightning or extreme heat (in extreme heat the league may step in and decide if it is safe).

Last night was a prime example why games are not cancelled in advance due to weather. In Havelock at the u12 game, the sun actually came out at about 6:50 and the game went ahead as scheduled.

I realize that this is a pain if you have to drive all the way to a match, only to have it cancelled, but there is not much that can be done about it.

I do hope the turbulent weather settles down and we have more steady patterns in July and August.

Cheers!

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