Frozen ground fiasco

Jan 8 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Accies were nearly forced into an embarrassing postponement of Saturday’s SPL clash against Aberdeen after a blocked pipe meant part of their pitch was frozen.

The problem was only averted when both clubs, referee Stephen Finnie and SPL officials agreed to bring the pitch in by two yards on both touchlines.

Accies, who won the game 2-0, said in a statement that their undersoil heating system had been on all week, but a delivery of oil on Saturday morning led to an ‘airlock’ in one of the pipes situated a yard from the touchline along the main stand side, meaning that part of the pitch was still frozen.

The statement read: “The system has previously been used this season against Kilmarnock and worked perfectly, and has worked perfectly on tests at other times.

“The system had used 5000 litres of oil since Wednesday of last week, and a fresh delivery of 5000 litres arrived first thing on Saturday morning. The heating was then turned to full power after this delivery.

“Unfortunately, in the changeover of the fuel to the delivery pump, we believe an airlock in one of the pipes had occurred, about one yard from the touchline along the main stand side, leading to that small strip of pitch becoming slightly harder as the morning wore on.”

The statement continued: “The dimensions of the pitch, which was 115 yards x 75 yards, the recommended standard international size, still fully comply with Laws of the Game and SPL recommendations.

“The area which had been causing slight concern was playable by 3pm as the heating remained on for the match.”

Aberdeen had suffered a similar problem in December when they travelled down for a match at Kilmarnock, only for the game to be called off.

Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood said he could have refused to play the game, but didn’t want his supporters to have travelled down to central Scotland in vain for the second time in a month.

He said: “We had a massive support and we had to look at them because it was a big day for them.

“I could have said no, but I would then have had about 3000 Aberdeen supporters on my head, and I didn’t fancy that.”