BARNET Football Club's latest
all-out effort to reach Wembley and get their Underhill
pitch ready for to-morrow's first-round Amatuer Cup game
against Cray Wanderers is to buy tons of old car tyres,
set them alight, and drag them around the ground to get
rid of the snow and ice.
Two tons of
tyres were given to the club by friends, and they bought
another 10 tons, costing £65. With the labour involved
this latest venture is costing the club about £100,
bringing their total snow and ice-clearance efforts to
£250.
Isthmian
Leaders
The idea to
use burning tyres came from Athenian League rivals,
Hounslow Town, whose efforts last week resulted in their
playing their first-round match and losing to
Kingstonian, the Isthmian League leaders, by 3-1. If
Barnet beat Cray Wanderers, they qualify to meet
Kingstonian in the next round at Underhill.
Work on
burning the ice off the pitch started on Wednesday
morning. "I watched the early stages." states
Argus, "and it was most succesful. Damage to the
pitch is being kept to a minimum. The burning tyres are
being moved before they damgae the grass roots."
Prospects
good
By noon
yesterday the pitch was cleared to the half-way line, and
it is expected the entire pitch will be cleared by
to-night. Wednesday's snow was no setback to the portion
already cleared as the ground underneath remained soft
and playable.
It is now
an odds-on chance that the game will be played.
The referee
has been asked to delay his inspection until to-morrow
morning. If there is another hard frost to-night the club
plan to drag more burning tyres over the pitch to get rid
of the ice patches.
The club's
latest action has been forced on them by the F.A. edict
that first-round matches must be played by March 2nd. If
home pitches are not fit by then, the game must be played
on a borrowed pitch in the locality - failing this on the
away team's pitch or on an alternative ground in the away
team's locality.
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