Has there ever been a Scottish senior game that's being called off in August due to poor weather? Perhaps it's even happened on the opening day of the season.

Trying to settle an argument with a friend. Thanks.

Our CIS League Cup tie with Albion Rovers was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch on 10th August 2004.

If we're talking 'senior', as in its literal definition, then 3 East of Scotland games were washed out on 9th August this season. If you mean SPL/SFL, then you're looking at something like Skyline's.

was that the summer of insane rain that cancelled a few CIS ties?

Hibs played Vetra Vilnius in the 1st round of the Inter Toto Cup on Saturday 3rd July 2004. The conditions were atrocious that day with a torrential rain storm making a mockery of the game as large puddles appeared all over the pitch and the players had to play through pools of water.

That game, I'm convinced, would've been off if it had been a domestic game. They were desperate to play it since Vetra were already here and the 2nd leg had to be played the following Saturday.

I don't know if others were cancelled in subsequent rounds. That was definitely the only one cancelled in the 1st round and caused the SFL a headache because they had to make the draw before it was played which meant presuming we won for seeding purposes. Which in turn ended up looking daft when we contrived to lose two goals in the last ten minutes to lose 2-1. Rovers ended up "seeded" by default in the 2nd round and got drawn against Brechin City as a result.

I recall some discussion at the time about whether it was the earliest call off in SFL history. I don't know that we ever received a definitive answer though.

As a side, what's the greatest number of ties due to be played on the same day that were called off owing to the weather? I'm guessing there's never been a case that ALL SPL/SFL games have been called off?

Our UEFA "home" game against FC Nordsjaelland at Airdrie was extremely close to being rained off due to waterlogging. Pitch was marginal at start of the game and I suspect many a ref would have called it off.

I'm sure there's a few instances from the 1950s when, at most, 2 or 3 games went ahead. Anyone?

I'm sure one of our away games at Morton last year was one of only a handful to be played on the day. Scottish Cup tie perhaps?


I don't think there's much doubt that had it been a domestic game it would have been off. In European terms though I've seen much more farcical games go ahead (one in the snow with Chelsea springs to mind). They avoid calling European games off like the plague because of the knock on problems it causes. The Nordsjaelland game was a problem and needed a lot of work to let it go ahead but I don't think it was ever realistically likely not to do so. I'd presume if it HAD been called off it would have been re-scheduled for the next day and probably the weekend game against Thistle would have been postponed as a knock on effect.

From what I recall the SC game was fairly decent weather, although perhaps there were frozen pitches elsewhere. I think your 3-0 league win was played on a miserable day, but I don't know for sure.

We had a came against Raith Rovers at Starks Park called off early one season due to a flooded pitch. It could quite easily have been that same day....

Not a senior game, but Ross County had a pre-season friendly against Elgin City cancelled (scheduled for mid-july) two seasons ago because of the weather.

You're right, wasn't either of those days.

On checking it turns out I was thinking of the previous round on 12th January when the games QoS v Linlithgow Rose and Morton v Gretna were the only two games in Scotland to go ahead at grounds without undersoil heating. I knew there was some connection with Cappielow.

January 6th 1979 - no SPL / SFL clubs played that day, all games postponed.

Only 4 games were played in England, and one of them was abandoned at half time. Some will remember it as the day Keith Weller of Leicester City played (against Norwich) wearing a pair of black tights.

The following week, January 13th, only Stranraer v Dunfermline in the Cup survived in Scotland.

Only 3 games went ahead in Scotland on Saturday 30th December 1995. This was when the country was in the grip of a 'big freeze' where teperatures dipped to around -30 degrees IIRC.

With it being over the festive period I'm not sure how many games were scheduled, although with it being a Saturday I imagine there might have been a full card planned.

What about the latest in the season?

Not about postponements tbf, but does anyone know the latest a senior match has been played?


The latest date the Scottish Cup Final has ever been played is Sat May 31st, in season 2002-03.

1964/65 Summer Cup Final was June 2nd, which is the latest full nationwide Cup Final I know of.

There could potentially be SFL matches played in June, if the season dragged on. So if someone trawls through the divisional grids on Brian McColl's site we'd get conclusive answer... or is there a CD-ROM database on the go which includes dates? If so, someone could do a 'sort' on that...


We'd have to exclude 'held over' cups, or competitions split over the summer - for example, the Groupstage and Quarter-Finals of the 1964-65 Summer Cup were held in May, but the 2-leg Final was held in early August (and went to a neutral replay...at start of September). The fifth edition of the B Division Supplementary Cup started on 12th September 1949, and was abandoned (with the Final unplayed) after Cowdenbeath v Forfar Semi-Final replay - 366 days later...

We'd also have to exclude wartime, as some tournaments were played on a summer season; or were played at funny times. Victory Cup of 1945-46 ran from late April, to a Final on 15th June.

In terms of SPL / SFL, May 7th 1983 (2nd last week of season), Stranraer v Stirling Albion postponed due to waterlogging.

On Tuesday, August 10th 2004, the Hamilton Accies v Ayr United CIS Cup tie was postponed due to waterlogging. It was an artificial surface!

Ditto ours - the first of only two games to be called off on our new plastic pitch caused both by a collapsed drain beneath the surface, and the river swelling and coming back up the drains, and onto the pitch.

[Edit] As Caledonian has already said.

In the rearranged fixture a week later, Accies defeated Ayr United by 4 goals to 1 (or 0 can't remember / don't care) with Stevie Convery scoring our last competitive hat-trick prior to Richard Offiong's against Dunfermline Athletic last season.

I'm not so sure, do you not remember our New Year's Day game in 2006?

There were hardly any games left on that day, the rain was so heavy I had to stop the car for a few minutes at East Kilbride, you just couldn't drive in it; and I phoned again to check that our game at Stranraer was still on, but it was. The combination of the weather and Claude Anelka meant there were only ten of us in the away end. (We lost 2-1.)

I was at that game. It genuinely was absolutely horrendous weather Thunder and lightening throughout the first half! Strangely enough though it was quite sunny towards the end of the game...