Soccer fixtures cancelled…again

When the Clare soccer league published a full fixture schedule for last weekend, they knew there was little chance of getting the games played given the weather conditions.
In fact, as weather conditions deteriorated, the league’s fixtures committee, wisely, decided to cancel the programme of games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday last and they went further and decided that there would be no games this coming weekend either.
“This is not unique to Clare, as games are being called off all over Ireland. Oscar Traynor games that were due to be played in November have yet to be played. First we had the floods and these were followed by frost and snow. We had a full round of games at the beginning of December but not since then,” explained Clare league secretary Oliver Fitzpatrick this week.
“Some clubs have a lot of games in hand and at this stage, you are looking at the season being extended to June. Hopefully, there won’t be any further hiccups,” he added.
The inter-league youths tie between Clare and Galway, which was cancelled last week due to ice on the pitch at Terryland Park, was cancelled again this week.
The draw for the quarter-finals of the Oscar Traynor, inter-league junior competition, is scheduled for Friday week in Dublin but as the rules state that all fixtures prior to this stage must be completed before the draw is made, it’s likely that the draws will be deferred, as there are some games from the group stage that have yet to be played.