London – Britain’s harshest winter for decades continued to disrupt sports schedules on Thursday as yet more fixtures were postponed because of freezing conditions.
With snow and ice making it treacherous for many people throughout Britain to get to work, officials in several sports announced the unusually early abandonment of weekend matches and races.
Football’s Scottish Cup has been hard hit. Six of the weekend’s 16 ties, including Morton’s match against Celtic, have fallen victim to the weather, with more expected to follow.
In England, none of this weekend’s Premier League football matches have yet been postponed.
Undersoil heating at top-flight grounds means that pitches are now able to withstand conditions that would have once made them unplayable, and Birmingham said on Thursday they were “extremely confident” their match against champions Manchester United on Saturday would go ahead.
But this week has already seen the scheduled League Cup semi-final ties between Premier League teams Blackburn and Aston Villa and Manchester City and Manchester United postponed because of concerns that the conditions would make it hard for fans to get to the grounds and back home safely.
Similar issues have already forced the postponement of several of this weekend’s lower league football matches and could yet affect Premier League games as well.
Safety concerns were behind Thursday’s announcement by London-based Harlequins that their English Premiership match at home to Leeds on Saturday was being postponed because of fears that supporters, players and staff would be at risk “due to the icy conditions of the stadium concourse and the surrounding area”.
Saturday’s Premiership matches between Sale and Saracens and Bath and Northampton, as well as Sunday’s clash between Newcastle and Gloucester, had already been called off.
Horse racing has been badly affected by the cold snap, with no National Hunt (jumps) meetings set to take place in Britain until Tuesday at the earliest.
Artificial, “all-weather”, tracks have also fallen victim to the conditions. Thursday’s meetings at the south of London courses of Lingfield and Kempton were both abandoned because of a lack of ambulances.
These are normally provided by the state-run National Health Service but, with much of Britain trying to ward off the effects of sub-zero temperatures, horse racing has fallen down ambulance chiefs’ list of priorities.
“It’s such a shame as the course is perfectly raceable,” said Kempton clerk of the course Barney Clifford.
Even cricket, England’s national summer sport, did not escape the cold on Thursday, with south coast county Sussex abandoning a ceremony to mark the demolition of the Gilligan Stand at their Hove headquarters ground because of the weather. – AFP
Post that beautiful snow pictures of Carol here. We moan about heat and they are freezing there.
I had a phone call from Pietman out of Incheon, South Korea. We spread our wings wide here on R-T.
Hi superBul,
I have only had to do two superbru predictions for the Guinness Premiership matches, The Worcester Warriors v London Irish although the website says match postponed and Leicester Tigers v Wasps and this morning the match is still scheduled to go ahead!
Glad you like the pics, however if you come to Britain unless coming for some rugby make it between May and September there is the remote possibility you may get some warm days then!
I will buy a lottery ticket soon…any number suggestions?
Carol
They predict even colder weather for you. We are getting warmer and warmer on this side they recon, although i remember real scorching Desembers a few years back.
Try click on my nick and see where you are going now. Let me know please.
superBul – That is a great link now, when I click on your name it goes straight to the wildlife galleries.
My top two cheetah photos are 15 and 16. In 15 they look almost like monkeys!!
Hey folks, try it…Get a taste of Africa by clicking onto superBuls name!!
Glo my, dit is hond koud hier. Ek was die 3de By Saracens/ Leicester game en het my gat afgevries.
superBul, see you have put some more shots on.
Tell me, in the elephant shots, some are taken after the rainy season when vegetation is plentiful and food must be easy to forage for, what on earth do they eat when everything dries up, some shots look like just dust and twigs are left!!
Presume they eat bushes and trees!
Hi Carol, that is why the big elephant debate is so emotional. They eat a lot of bark and branches, they uproot trees too, to rip the bark of the roots. When there is a lot of foliage it is not so severe but when it is dry a lot of trees and shrubs is destroyed. They also eat lots of grass when available.
my opinion is tat we must control their numbers, others feel let nature decide. We opened up the border between Kruger Park and Mozambique so a lot of extra land was added to the greater Kruger National park , the combined area is now called the Peace park.
The old Kruger park had something near to 2 million hectares of grazing, the Private reserves where i work added about 400 000 hectares to that and the cross border part in Mozambique and the planned part in Zimbabwe will make the peace park almost 5 million hectares big. The problem with this big park is that conservation in the neighboring countries is not high on their agenda and a lot of illegal poaching happens there.
cont…
The numbers are kept quiet lately , but when there was control in the 80s there was about 6 to 7500 elephants in the Kruger. Then the culling stopped and about 4 to 5 years back when i last heard the numbers was about 13-14 000. And that after a lot was relocated.
Trees that take 50 to 100 years are uprooted daily, so many opinions about this. Your question , yes they eat mostly trees , and reeds in the river beds when there is not enough food.
About that big tusker pics, that is out of the KNP archives. Not many people have them , more to follow.
You like horses Carol, look at mine in the General album.
superBul, as always culling is something we do no like to face.
As we squeeze wildlife into smaller and smaller spaces with our continued search for farmland, etc the animals will continue to be put under severe stress. Competition for water and grazing must get desperate.
Is it our duty to keep the numbers at a managable level as umpleasant as that seems or is starvation preferable? A difficult call…….
It is tough out in your neck of the woods!! 😐
superBul – Your “striped” horses are beautiful…..mine are plain and rather dull in comparison!
I will mail you a shot now.
12
So far so good the area we have is big, and it seems like it will stay that way for a while. But with the natural breeding the numbers must be controlled or more land be acquired. Now thats the big problem.
Culling is really bad , but total starvation even worse. We must manage it right.
On a more pleasant note, the feeling when you spot this big ones is great. I saw one off the big ones 2 years back in our area at the Klaserie river. I send my picks to a Elephant Research group to identify him for me and they appreciated it so much , i was the only one to report back about that ellie that year. According to them he visits this area on a tour once per year and then moves back to the Shingwedzi area in the Kruger Park.
Of the big tuskers i was lucky to see 3 of them in all my time here. They are very rare and shy. Years made them clever to stay deep in the bush.
Save the Elephants – South Africa (STE-SA), which is based at Tanda Tula Safari Camp in the heart of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, represents a long-term study focussed on the spatial distribution of elephants and their needs for survival. We are studying elephant movements within a substantial conservation area of approximately 30 000 km2 represented by the Associated Private Nature Reserves and National Parks within the Greater Kruger Ecosystem.
STE-SA is a registered Non Profit Organisation. We rely solely on donations in order to achieve this research.
What we do
Track elephants with advanced technology to understand their needs and what motivates their movements
Identify individual elephants to study population dynamics and cross boundary habitat use
Examine the effects of elephants on key tree species
Experiment with methods of alleviating elephant tree damage
Engage with the public to share our knowledge
Provide scientific knowledge for management planning
What are the issues
Restoration of elephant migration routes now that fences are coming down
Science-based management decisions
Sustaining Africa’s largest concentration of big tusked individuals
Seeking a solution for the coexistence of elephants, trees and people
When I read about the cold in Britian just feel like never complaining about the heat here. Jeepers it is cold there. Think Sky News said the coldest winter since 1982.
3 – Super, I just clicked on. Great wildlife photo’s you have there. Makes one just want to go tot he game park.
tot = to
GBS – You are going to have to get a ‘Sunday Night, before Monday Morning’ slot going…..
If we said at 7pm on a Sunday, anyone who wants to pop in for an update on the weekends sport, to pass some sporty gossip or just call by for a chat would find a few Rugby Talkers about.
Perhaps its just the snow making me restless!!
I am getting cabin fever…………
I WISH IT WAS SUMMER…. 🙁
19
Yes we must have a Sunday open hour, starting sometime around 8,oclock SA time, i real hows your weekend thing.
Go watch my game walk on the photo link.
This walk was really emotional, since the young Cheetahs mom was killed by Lions 5 days ago. Sad indeed , they were calling and searching for her the whole walk trough.
Savana was so special, i took a last photo of her and the 3 cubs she raised on the 23rd of December.
20 – SuperBul – The cheetah walk shots are great, but really sad to hear that mum Savana was killed though.
She had done so well to bring all those little ones up, it has been great following their progress too.
However,as I said yesterday it is tough out there….!!
Hope that lion leaves them alone!
20 – superBul, yes 8pm SA time is a good gathering time.
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