Navan's Simon Clarke confirmed to The Hook this evening that his club were forced to concede their game with Clontarf from last Saturday in increasingly farcical circumstances as the Meath club were unable to field a team tonight.
The game was initially abandoned last Saturday when the umpires deemed the pitch at Mount Temple unplayable with the score at 4-0 to Clontarf and Navan down to 10-men after Shane Dooley's red card.
The subsequent rearrangement of the fixture has seen numerous different stories relayed to The Hook though it would seem the correct procedure was not followed in confirming the game to be completed on Tuesday night at 7.30pm.
A spokesman for the fixtures committee, though, told The Hook this evening that the game should never have been refixed at such short notice and said that the protocol in these situations is to restart the game from the beginning.
Rule 80 of the Leinster Branch rulebook states that "notification of all matches shall be given at least five days before the match is to be played". The game was only three days prior to the named replay date while reports suggest that Clontarf only received confirmation from a representative of the fixtures committee at 11.15pm on Monday evening while Navan were
not made aware of the game going ahead until Tuesday morning.
The Fixtures Committee will hold a meeting in the coming week with the express intention of copper-fastening their rules in this regard.
7 comments:
At least some good has come from this. I hope other teams aren't messed around as much in future. No hard feelings between the teams, looking forward to the return fixture in a (warmer) New Year.
Ru
This game will have to be replayed as its now a complete mess - Navan should appeal -
Yes, I'm sure I can hear the Benny Hill theme tune playing in the background. What a disgraceful mess. Make up a set of rules for competitions, make a decision - and then stick by them
Ye the rules really need to be sorted and definate. However this mess should just be forgotten about and left at a win to Clontarf as was decided, and look forward to the return league fixture
I agree with Ru, the positive thing is that the branch have now been forced into making sensible guidelines for the future. Great to hear that there are no hard feelings because this mess was not the fault of either team involved and matches between the two teams are always good contests played in a sporting manner.
Fingers crossed that the matter can be left now and we can both get on with the rest of the league campaign. It would be a shame if there was calls for re-fixes etc. because both teams have big matches coming up that need their complete attention.
I think both clubs are ready to move on from this and while there are lots of unsatisfactory elements to it, I think the right result has (somehow) been reached.
Here's to the return fixture in '09
On a lighter note, Is the clontarf player in the top picture actually crying? and if so, Why?
No, he's praying for some common sense and decorum.
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