It was a long drive....but what a great lunch

Unless you support Aldershot and live in Middlesbrough, Darlington will always be listed under ‘extreme’ when writing a book entitled ‘Shots on the Road’.

After a month of snow and ice leading to postponements and frustration, it was great to hear the optimism emanating from the Darlington Arena last week - ‘The game is definitely on’.

So at 0600hrs yesterday I left a very sceptical wife tucked up in bed, safe from the storm force winds that had battered our house all night, and started the long journey north. Although for just a moment, as my car stirred from its mid-winter slumbers, I too started to doubt my sanity.

Then by Birmingham the storms that had swept through west and south Wales overnight were no more than a distant memory and I travelled north surprisingly invigorated by the barren landscape shrouded only by grey mist.

‘Darlington will hold a pitch inspection at 10 o’clock’, came as a bit of a surprise as I stopped at Wetherby for coffee.…..and news that, ‘a further inspection will be held at 12’, did nothing to raise my spirits.

I pulled into the Darlington Arena car park just before midday and quickly found my way up to the Directors Box, just as the referee was looking at the pitch.

The covers alongside the main stand were still being pulled back, revealing a heavy and very wet playing surface. But down the centre of the pitch, and in the goal areas, the surface looked pretty good. I left the arena and walked back to my car. The warm glow of optimism surfacing as a result of my own pitch inspection was destroyed within two minutes by news that, ‘the Ref has called it off fearing more rain….’

I sympathise with Darlington. Their public uttering that the game will be on, fuelled no doubt by the desperation to generate some income, was perhaps blind to the true state of the pitch. But then I also think their statement, that heavy overnight rain put the game in doubt, was probably based on records edited by Alastair Campbell!

The pitch looked playable to me....but then I guess my opinion was corrupted by 600 miles of motorway....or was it?

I think the game was always in doubt and it only took a fussy referee to leave me looking for somewhere to have lunch before returning home to face the inevitable, ‘ I said you were mad’.