Late postponement is labelled ‘a farce’

The County League Division 1 game was moved to Wick & Barnham’s Crabtree Park owing to Arundel’s Mill Road ground suffering from flooding since early January.

However, the County League Division 1 game was called off, with the teams warming-up, as referee Jamie Gilham deemed parts of the pitch unplayable.

Butler said: “It was the most ridiculous call. A lot of people had taken time off work to get there and I’ve seen games played on a lot worse pitches.

“We’ve played on worse pitches this season and I really felt for Wick. They did us a big favour by hosting the game for us and people from both clubs had taken time off work to get the pitch playable.

“It was just a farce, really. We’re desperate to play games and I just couldn’t see a problem with the pitch.

“The officials did waive their payment but a lot of people’s time was wasted.”

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Sussex County League chairman Steve Nealgrove said: “I have every sympathy with Arundel, Wick and Shoreham as the referee has got to use a degree of common sense.

“Wick worked hard on the pitch and, at this stage, it’s difficult to understand why it was called off but, no doubt, we will be advised.”

Earlier on Tuesday, East Preston’s home match with Pagham was also postponed and just two of the seven scheduled matches in the division went ahead.

In the matches that survived, Chichester beat Worthing United 3-0 and Littlehampton moved back into second place with a 2-1 victory at Selsey.

Three of the four games in Division 2 went ahead – with Steyning Town’s game at Oakwood the only one postponed – and two of the three scheduled cup matches also took place.