The majority of the Jewish football programme fell victim to Storm Ciara, but there were many other things to factor in.

MLFC were among the first clubs to call a blanket postponement of matches at Rowley Lane due to health and safety concerns, as a result of the high winds that caused havoc last weekend.

Manchester Maccabi were preparing to play Manchester Rovers but the teams made the right call postpone as, if you look on Twitter, there was a massive hailstorm as the players huddled for cover in the dugout.

“It’s wind. What have we become?” One person declared on an entertaining Twitter exchange as I looked for a match that was going ahead, as the scheduled cup tie featuring North London Raiders and MLFC Blue at the Ark Academy in Wembley was also called off.
The bottom line is that the referee has to make the sensible decision to ensure the safety of the players and officials.

Many matches are played on 4G pitches these days, where a metal cage surrounds the playing surface. But within the cage are several potentially dangerous objects, including heavy pitch signage, wires and multiple smaller goals.

I popped into the Hive, home of Barnet FC, to see just how bad conditions were around 10am. Two junior matches were already under way on the 4Gs, but all the grass pitches had been called off. 

Credit to the teams involved for playing some excellent football in the conditions. That said, there were one or two comical moments where goal-kicks caught the wind and on more than one occasion blew back with such force the ball went out for a corner to the other team.

It would be fair to say some of the venues, where refs erred on the side of caution, were playable. But with trees falling over and mobile goals moving around, on reflection the right call was made.

Thanks to my photographer Marc Morris and videographer Jonathan Burns for braving the elements and getting such good footage from this week’s feature game.