Statisticians left scratching heads

Statisticians at the Premier Division Bucks were already scratching their heads after their clash with Bradford Park Avenue was called off at half-time before yet more rain on Tuesday forced the Bucks to postpone the rearranged third qualifying round tie at the highest ground in England to host professional football.

Floodlight failure against Hucknall over New Year in 2011 and a pre-Christmas fog in 2006 when hosting Shepshed led to relatively recent abandonments but the stats show it's been more than three decades since pitch conditions last forced a premature termination at Silverlands.

Like last Saturday, a bizarre weather event was to blame back in mid-March 1982, a combination of mud, falling snow and life-threatening lightning bringing an early end to a Northern Premier League President's Cup semi-final against Marine.

Officials hope the statistics will give some consolation to their hard-working groundsman Richard Lomas who's currently preparing the club's playing surface for Workington's arrival in the top flight this Saturday and a third attempt to take on Bradford PA next Tuesday night.

"Last Saturday's abandonment was particularly tough on our head groundsman Richard who has rightly received many plaudits for the quality of this season's pitch," said a spokesman.

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