Ground staff dig in to help cup tie go ahead

Lyndon Lloyd , 26 January, 18comments | Jump to most recent

Updated: Bolton Wanderers' ground staff waged an all-night battle against snow to clear the Reebok Stadium pitch so the FA Cup tie with Everton will rest on conditions on the roads and pavements outside the ground.

The club's groundsman, Nick Regan, Tweeted last evening that although the undersoil heating at the Reebok Stadium has been on for days and the pitch temperature is warm, the snow was falling too heavily for he and his team to keep up.

Their snow-clearing efforts continued through the night and an updated Tweet this morning from staff member Mark Sinnett showed the pitch almost cleared.

The match will now depend on the local council's efforts in clearing the roads and pavements around the ground so that they will be safe for fans traveling to and from the stadium.

There will also be a pitch inspection at Port Vale at 8am tomorrow morning to determine if Everton's Youth Cup tie will go ahead.

Reader Comments (18)

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Martin Handley
1 Posted 25/01/2013 at 22:23:16

My brother is stuck on the M62 not far from Bolton, the police are actually considering shutting it for a while.

Under-soil heating or not, it's whether or not the police feel the surrounding area is safe and, if this snowfall continues at the rate, it is I fear the answer may well be No.

Dennis Shaw
2 Posted 25/01/2013 at 23:40:43

This will definitely be called off. I was near Bolton tonight — the snow is really deep and the roads are horrendous.

Phil Sammon
3 Posted 26/01/2013 at 00:10:35

Nah. The main roads will be fine tomorrow. Supposed to rain in the morning and clear this lot away.

Brendan McLaughlin
4 Posted 26/01/2013 at 00:14:02

Love it ...Phil #660
"Supposed to rain in the morning and clear this lot away"...AKA Flood Alert!

Pat Finegan
5 Posted 26/01/2013 at 05:31:46

What the hell is this, Sub-Saharan Africa? It's snow. It happens. You shovel it out of the way and keep going.

Barry Earley
6 Posted 26/01/2013 at 05:46:18

Don't understand the problem. I'm sat inside with the air conditioning on and it's over 35 C outside, lovely blue skies, and I was at the beach earlier. What snow?

Barry, Perth, Australia.

Derek Thomas
7 Posted 26/01/2013 at 06:20:47

Barry #673....Luxury, I'm struggling with only 25c and rain here in Brisbane Brrrr.

Martin Faulkner
8 Posted 26/01/2013 at 07:34:55

35 is a bit too hot for me Barry,
I'll happily take Sydney's muggy 28 C

Christine Foster
9 Posted 26/01/2013 at 08:04:17

Still chucking it down here, has been all day and will be all weekend here in Brissy. Hope the miserable fucker who turned over our place and pinched the car drown in it!

Ray Robinson
10 Posted 26/01/2013 at 08:21:39

Game on:

http://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/article/everton-game-to-go-ahead-26.1.13-620226.aspx

Keith Edmunds
11 Posted 26/01/2013 at 09:28:28

A chilly low twenties in Melbourne today.

Jim Brien
12 Posted 26/01/2013 at 09:48:48

Well in the interests of a straight flush, can I say Adelaide (Sth Aust) has been a very mild, sunny 25 with a cool breeze -and the '46 deg' of last week is long behind us. :)

Kev Johnson
14 Posted 26/01/2013 at 09:55:47

Groundsmen clearing snow from the pitch is a charming FA Cup tradition. It ought to be compulsory! When I wasa lad they had to clear the snow using teaspoons, none of this modern "spade" nonsense...

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Bring on the orange ball!

Phil Sammon
15 Posted 26/01/2013 at 10:27:45

Spoons?!

You had it easy, son. When I was a lad we had to catch each snowflake as it fell and then physically carry them off the pitch one at a time.

Antony Matthews
16 Posted 26/01/2013 at 10:56:37

Moysey could stare at the pitch and it would melt

James Morgan
17 Posted 26/01/2013 at 11:03:08

All out blizzards in Scandinavia, Russia, Canada etc and traffic carries on as normal, sports still get played, yet we have a few flakes and its all chaos! Get on with it!

Kev Johnson
18 Posted 26/01/2013 at 11:46:44

Phil - that was sheer luxury! Sometimes we didn't have any spare hands - they were too busy washing the players shirts and knitting bobble hats for pensioners - and we had to catch each snowflake on our tongues and wait until they'd melted... then move on to the next snowflake. Talk about labour intensive!

Sean Condon
20 Posted 26/01/2013 at 14:09:56

Phil and Kev's Secret Other Ball?

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