By Leipziger
December 23 2006

The mist and cold which has descended on the South of England in the last week has made me wonder whether the Dark Lord Sauron has returned to spread darkness over the world. A bit far-fetched perhaps, but the weather did claim a rugby victim last night. Four grounds of last night's full Premiership programme were inspected for visibility before kick-off: Worcester, Northampton and Bath were able to play, Gloucester, at home to our Falcons, were not.

Around 10.30am notice was given that a pitch inspection would take place at 4.30pm under the floodlights, and while a bloke opposite me on the train tried to find information on his palmtop computer, Luddite Leipy phoned Crouch n Hold to discover that the go-ahead had been given, and a text from Sam confirmed that the fog seemed to have lifted.

So I got to Gloucester around 5, and after a bite to eat walked about a mile up the wrong road trying to find Kingsholm - my excuse is that I hadn't been there in the dark before, and Monkey was telepathically sending me directions against my will.

Finally arriving at Kingsholm, I had a little hunt around for the Supporters' Club coach to dump my bag (and the four bottles of Brown Ale the boss had given me at work in the Secret Santa!) ahead of a Christmas trip back to Newcastle, but gave up and settled for the boot of Sam's car.

The Kingsholm pub was heaving, so fans spilled out onto the street as we drank away the time before kick-off, with the floodlights becoming ever fainter. Then just after seven a home fan was overheard walking away from the ground saying something like "...cancelled...".

I investigated, and sure enough the turnstiles were closed, and people began streaming from the exits. A steward confirmed the game had been postponed. Bad one.

Probably the right decision though - walking back to Sam's car to get my stuff, streets which had been clear now had about 5m visibility, and just look at the photos on our and Gloucester's offy sites.

The downside was we had travelled to the South West on a Friday and the game had been called off - the upside was that the coach left Gloucester at 8pm and so arrived back at Kingston Park at 1am, rather than the expected 3.30! The mood was perhaps a little subdued, but everyone was of course philosophical, calling it an "I was there when..." day. And the early return meant the possibility of some reasonable sleep last night.

March 24th or 31st look like reasonable possibilities for the rearranged game, see www.gloucesterrugbyclub.com to check on the re-issue / return of tickets.

And lets have a fresh side take blunt a few Sharks' teeth on Boxing Day.

Merry Christmas everybody!!