Richardson Cup

WEST LANCS League officials have decided to put back the delayed Richardson Cup ties until the early weeks of February, after heavy rains and bad weather has twice washed out the seven outstanding ties to be decided (writes Howard Jones).
So far only the Fulwood/Hesketh Bank encounter has been played, with the rest of the Premier Division hoping and praying for good pre-Christmas weather to finally put to bed their outstanding ties.
But with another seven match washout last weekend with games at Burnley, Euxton, Longridge, Slyne, Southport Hesketh, Thornton Cleveleys and Garstang all getting the thumbs down, fixtures secretary Chris Wight has indicated that there may be a delay to the re-scheduling of these important ties.
He said: “With the continual bad weather l might leave it now until the beginning of February as it would be less disruptive to the fixtures as a whole and also, l don’t then have to change the planned January fixtures.”
And it seems possible that two ties,at Garstang and Longridge will have the option of switching on their floodlights in a bid to get the fixtures played.
He added: “Now that we have a number of clubs with floodlights this gives me more scope to play mid-week games when the weather is drier.
“Of course I have to bear in mind that these clubs don,t complete their home games and are left waiting to fulfil their away fixtures.It’s a balance to get things fair to all.”
With the pre-Christmas washout of fixtures in recent weeks, hopes are high that the New Year may well will bring better weather and enable the glut of outstanding games to finally be played.
Meanwhile hopes are high that this weekend’s league fixtures will go ahead as normal - weather permitting of course!