Outdoor sports in Essex are facing a massive backlog of fixtures, and it can all be blamed on the rain soaked, mud-filled and waterlogged pitches.

One had always thought that cricket was the only sport where one heard of 'rain stopping play' but our local football, rugby and hockey leagues are all suffering after the recent and seemingly never-ending downpours of rain.

Some park pitches have been able to stage matches on Saturday's, but this, through no fault of anybody, has then put paid to those pitches being adequate for Sunday's.

In last weekend's Spall Brentwood Sunday Football League fixtures, only four matches managed to be played, that being just two less then the previous Sunday.

The Pope & Smith Chelmsford Sunday Football League's new fixture secretary Dave Emerton has certainly had a baptism of fire, and the previous incumbent Tony Foster must have had a crystal ball when stepping down during the summer.

In the worst autumn weather in memory, some of the league's teams haven't played for six weeks and one side Cherry Tree Sports Reserves have only played three out of a scheduled 20 league games.

County FA competitions take priority over League and League cup fixtures, and our sides are involved in never ending sagas, some still trying to play the previous round's game and then if successful stepping straight into the following round.

With the forecast bleak for the rest of the winter some clubs already have no chance of completing their programme and planned cup finals are already in serious doubt even if venues can be found.

Up to and including last Sunday, some 150 matches have been postponed, this in a competition that stages between 25 and 30 games a week.

Tony Foster said: ''The League is not quite at crisis point yet but given that we have yet to suffer a cold snap and frost and snow will also take their toll of games, the future is bleak, and some lateral thinking and much co-operation from the clubs will be required to complete the league programme.''

Stuart Elrick, of the Essex Intermediate Saturday Football League, echoed Tony Foster's words, saying: "The league has lost over 170 games so far this season and we haven't seen any frost or snow yet.

''Some teams have only played two league games out of a possible 15 and our fixture secretary is going grey with worry. It is going to be a long season.

''It will be difficult to fit all the league and cup games this season and another problem that we all will face is getting officials for the midweek games.

''The number of referees is declining but the number of games in all leagues is increasing.

Rugby players who normally revel by playing on mud-soaked pitches, have not escaped the rains either.

John Troup, of Braintree Rugby Club, said: "We have been able to get several of our club matches played, but two weeks ago, we had a complete blank weekend, with all senior and junior matches having to be cancelled."

Chelmsford Hockey Club have the advantage of an astroturf pitch at Chelmer Park in Galleywood, but their 'out-pitches' which are all grass, have been affected by the rain, and several recent matches have had to be postponed.

December used to be a month when sports fixture secretaries were dreading, because of snow falling on pitches, but at the moment, their only wish is 'rain, rain, go away'.

If the weather keeps up its recent trend, then many local teams will not be completing their fixtures until June or July 2001, something that the loyal band of fixture secretaries are hoping to avoid.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.