MC Slip Up In Abandoned Floodlit Game

On Friday night the quarter final of the Floodlit Cup between Cuths and Stephenson had to be abandoned after 60 minutes when the referee deemed the rubber crumb too icy to continue.

The frustrating decision was taken after  Stephenson fly half was knocked out and scrums prevented by the icy pitch. 

This compounds a miserable few weeks for Maiden Castle, who have been forced to cancel all matches and training this month with all pitches being frozen over.

However with the Cuths versus Stephenson quarter final being scheduled on the rubber crumb, where Durham’s 1st XV beat Northumbia on Wednesday night, and Collingwood thrashed Cuth’s B on Thursday night, both teams were hopeful that this game would get the go ahead.

Everything was looking good at the start of the game and kick off went ahead as planned. The cold conditions weren’t helping the teams though, as they both needed some time to warm up and play themselves into the game in a cagey start to the first half.

As the half wore on though gaps started to appear in the back line and two late tries apiece saw the first half end 7 – 7.

Conditions then started to deteriorate in the second half as players began to slip on the increasingly icy pitch.

Soon after the restart the Stephenson number 10 was knocked flat out on the deck, with the ref looking at the icy pitch to blame.

He decided to give the game one last chance but when the next scrum collapsed with the players getting no grip on the pitch, he made the call of abandoning the match.

Stephenson were probably the most frustrated by this decision, having made a wasted trip all the way down from Stockton. They were also managing to hold Cuths at that point, who were last years floodlit cup finalists and had hammered them 31 – 5 in the same fixture earlier in the season.

With the first floodlit semi final scheduled for this evening, the competition might have to be put on hold for a while…