Blank weekend for Old Penarthians (From Penarth Times)

Blank weekend for Old Penarthians

The weekend's devastating weather put paid to all possibility of Saturday matches for the Old Penarthians with Club Officials Melvyn Jones and Tony Crimp deciding as early as Friday that Cwrt-y-Vil's surface would be ruined for the season should any of the scheduled games be allowed to take place.

In addition to the club's own games, this meant the cancellation of a Vale Schools fixture scheduled for the morning whilst it was with great reluctance that the decision was taken that it would not be practicable for Penarth Youth to undertake their prestige clash with their Worcester counterparts, a match that had been eagerly anticipated by the town's youngsters.

Certainly, it is to be hoped that that game can be re-arranged for later in the season.

Unfortunately, there was less sensibility in the approach of First team opponents, Nelson.

Despite the torrential downpours of Friday and the horrific forecast given for Saturday, the Mid Glamorgan men were reluctant to make their decision until the very last moment.

As a consequence, the Old Boys were kept on tenterhooks until midway through Saturday morning before it was known that the game would not be taking place, leaving Treasurer Nigel Williams with the unsavoury prospect of having to meet the full cost of coach hire rather than the token payment that would have applied had the cancellation taken place earlier.

It is appreciated that the very tight league schedule creates considerable difficulty in terms of alternative dates following cancellations but, given the clearly hopeless nature of the circumstances last weekend, a greater degree of consideration on the part of the Nelson committee would certainly have saved the Old Boys a considerable amount of unnecessary expense.

As it is, there could well be doubts as to the possibility of games taking place this coming weekend.

Fixture Secretary Mel Jones was delighted that the switching of the Ireland v Wales international to Sunday enabled him to slot in the recently postponed fixture at New Tredegar for Saturday afternoon but it may be that a dramatic improvement in the weather will be needed if that match is not to be postponed for a second time.

Penarthians will be hoping that a clutch of players will have recovered from niggling injuries, enabling the Selectors to field a near full strength side for a match that is vital for two clubs currently battling it out to escape the bottom places in Division 5.

It is a game that coaches Mike Goldsworthy and Kenny Rattenbury had targeted as vital in the search for points but they, together with skipper Mark Lloyd and team manager Lindsay Jones, will be concerned by the news that the hosts achieved an outstanding victory against championship contenders Pill Harriers in their last outing. The match at New Tredegar is scheduled to kick off at 2.30pm whilst the only other club game is at Cwrt-y-Vil where the Vets are hoping to be in action in the return match against their counterparts from Dinas Powys.