The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Carlisle United Tuesday 21 March 2023 @ 7:45pm

So is it fair to say that your experience today and the disruption you faced would have been only minimally worse had you reached Bradford, got to the ground and then found out it was off?
Would the extra few wasted hours have made much of a difference to your day?
My point being, wouldn’t it be better for long distance fans to wait until say 2pm before calling game off unless it’s postponed the day before?

 

Maybe a soup kitchen or food bank would benefit
You would like to think so

 

So from the sounds of it Carlisle were already here and the fans would have already set off.
Surely at that point the ref should have waited until 2pm? What harm would it have done apart from obviously home fans starting to make their journey also.

 

Come on City, show us the pitch as it is now, I dare you

 

Clusterf*ck.

 

And the part of the pitch that remained frozen because of the stands shading the ground from the sun?

 

I suppose it depends on what drives the decision. Giving the game the best chance to go ahead, or minimising the risk of supporters travelling needlessly.

Personally, as a fan, I'd rather give it as much chance as possible to have the game go ahead. Inform fans early, say 10am that there's a risk and a final pitch inspection will take place at say 2pm. Treat people like adults and let them decide.

 

Some of these on here weren’t born in 63 when there was hardly any football over the winter. What was it 3 months of snow and ice?


Newspaper article

The current big freeze has far to go before it equals the paralysis that disrupted the season of 1963. When Middlesbrough beat Blackburn 3-1 in a replay at Ayresome Park on 11 March, this brought to an end the most chaotic third round in the then 91-year history of the FA Cup. The round had begun on 5 January and lasted 66 days through frost, snow, ice, power cuts, thaw, rain and mud. The third round was spread over 22 different playing days and there were 261 postponements. Sixteen of the 32 ties were called off 10 or more times.

Topping the list was Birmingham v Bury, which stretched through 14 postponements plus one abandonment and a replay, while Lincoln v Coventry was postponed 15 times. The record was set in Scotland, where the Stranraer v Airdrie cup tie was postponed 33 times, while in Yorkshire Barnsley played only two matches between 22 December and 12 March. It was Britain's coldest winter since 1740 and also caused mass postponements in both rugby codes and the loss of 61 days of National Hunt racing.

The FA Cup third round of 1963 gave birth to the Pools Panel which, on four successive Saturdays under different chairmen – Lord Brabazon, Sir Alan Herbert, Group Captain Douglas Bader, and Sir Gerald Nabarro (the Tory MP) – gave results for the postponed games, of which there were more than 30 on 26 January. On the resident panel were the former England internationals Ted Drake, Tom Finney and Tommy Lawton; from Scotland, George Young; and the Fifa referee Arthur Ellis. Lord Brabazon, on the opening day of the panel, was of the opinion that "forecasting is a farce" and there was a shortage of draws from the panel in relation to a normal programme.

The disruptions caused, inevitably, many distortions, but one of the unlikeliest was Fulham's. George Cohen, later to be England's winning World Cup right-back, recalls: "When the freeze struck we were in danger of relegation. Luckily we were able to go and train at the ground of Leatherhead FC, near to where I lived at Chessington. When the thaw arrived, we went 13 weeks without defeat and moved to safety."

It was rather the reverse for Brighton, where a local builder on the club board managed to unfreeze the pitch with his tarmac-laying equipment. However, this destroyed the pitch, and Brighton were still relegated.

The FA agreed that, in emergency, clubs might play third- and fourth-round Cup ties on neutral grounds where available. Yet Billy Lane, the manager of non-Lleague Gravesend, refused to shift the home tie with lofty Sunderland, and the Kent team held them to a draw, narrowly losing the replay. The Scottish FA, meanwhile, vainly discussed the possibility of summer football.

Coventry City, led by the imaginative Jimmy Hill, went to play friendly matches in Ireland, including against Manchester United in Dublin, a 2-2 draw in front of a 20,000 crowd. Halifax turned their pitch at The Shay into a public ice rink and charged admission. Chelsea, with Tommy Docherty as manager, flew to Malta.

If there was disruption on the field, there was confusion elsewhere. The League management committee proposed to extend future seasons to the end of May, and devised a relegation system that defied mathematical analysis but was ultimately abandoned. The government, pressed by the Wolfenden Committee on Sport to create a Sports Development Council with an annual budget of £5m, ignored the proposal and instead appointed as minister of sport Lord Hailsham (Quintin Hogg), who spent most of his time shooting or fishing. His assistant was Sir Patrick Renison, who may have performed splendid service as governor of British Honduras, British Guiana and Kenya, but knew next to nothing of sport, admitting: "I'll be starting from scratch." Nothing new there.

I remember well the opening paragraph of a match I reported at Charlton during the worst of the crisis, a goalless draw at home to Bury. I wrote in the Telegraph: "Take one frying pan (or football pitch), melt a quantity of ice, stir in enough earth, sand and peat to form a liquid paste. Add 22 players, flavour with a referee, simmer for 90 minutes until players are uniformly brown and unrecognisable. Serve chilled to half‑frozen spectators who, after weeks of neglect, have such an appetite for the game that they are unlikely to summon the Maître d' (manager)."

By the time the league was back to normal in March, it was clear that the race for the title rested between Spurs, Leicester and Everton. After Everton lost 2-1 away to Sheffield United on 30 March, it looked good for Spurs, even though Everton had two games in hand. Leicester stood between the two rivals, but success in reaching the FA Cup final limited their League focus. An epic clash between Everton and Spurs on 20 April opened the way for the title to return to Goodison after a lapse of 24 years. A crowd of 67,650 saw Everton win by the only goal from mercurial Alex Young. Though they dropped a home point to Arsenal, Everton finished with four victories, away to West Ham and West Brom, home to Bolton and Fulham. Their triumph owed much to big-name signings: Tony Kay at left-half from Sheffield Wednesday, Alex Scott from Rangers on the right wing, and Gordon West in goal from Blackpool.

The FA Cup final was delayed until 25 May, three weeks later than the 1962 final. Manchester United, having only narrowly escaped relegation, defeated Leicester. Throughout the season United's rhythm had been predominantly absent, whereas Leicester at one stage were in line for the Double. They had no stars to match Matt Busby's glittering array, but under the shrewd guidance of their manager, Matt Gillies, were a sound unit. However, at Wembley, their midfield trio of Cross, McLintock and Gibson were so busy attempting to stem the flow of United's attack that Leicester seldom provided any thrust up front.

Even that was not the end. The League Cup final, then played over two legs, and featuring Birmingham and Aston Villa, was not completed until the Monday after the FA Cup final – two days before the Derby.

 

Exactly, people are more than capable of making their own choices.
If Gillingham told us at 12pm there’s a risk to the game I most definitely would not travel due to distance and cost.
However, if Stockport told us there will be an inspection at 7pm I would still go just in case.

 

What happens with tickets purchased for the game? I know all tickets remain valid for the rearranged fixture but can fans claim a refund instead? It being rescheduled for a midweek slot presumably, some fans may not be able take it.

 

Well I don’t think there’s been much sun in Bradford today but temperatures have definitely risen considerably.
The north facing part of my garden was frozen at 10am but is now completely defrosted and I don’t have covers or the use of a heater.
Sounds like a load of BS from the club and a poor decision not to delay inspection

 

I have no idea on timing but it’s the officials who make it for sure.

 

Don't you think the club would rather the game gone ahead and not lose a sizeable chunk of revenue due to the postponement?

 

Absolutely, which is why I’m stunned they called a pitch inspection at 12pm when the pitch was frozen but knowing there was a very good chance of it thawing before 3pm. Unbelievable Jeff.

 

Do we actually know the pitch was playable by that time. I wish it had been on but i don't how hard that pitch was and did the cloud clear around Valley parade enough to let the sun out?

 

Oh well. West Ham v Everton is a decent scrappy game so far. Both teams playing like Championship sides already

 

Loyal Bantam, you keep rattling on about the pitch would have been fine at 3pm. That's dubious to start with, but also what about at 4.30, when there'd be no sun, but the match would still be ongoing? As many have asked you, what is the benefit to City of having it called off?