Pirates: Ford explains grand final postponement (updated) (From Bournemouth Echo)

Pirates: Ford explains grand final postponement (updated)

5:10pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in Sport By Ian Wadley

PIRATES chief Matt Ford said forecasts predicting “100 per cent rain” had left no other option than to postpone the Elite League grand final.

Scheduled for tonight at Wimborne Road, the eagerly-anticipated second leg between Pirates and Swindon will now take place on Friday (7.30pm).

Despite the track being protected by covers, the decision was made after weather experts suggested heavy downpours were set to hit Dorset.

Ford told the Daily Echo: “The forecast from 7pm onwards is dreadful.

“The decision was made rather than upsetting all of the travelling fans and people who would have paid to come in and, potentially, have an evening cut short.

“It was more of a chance of running the fixture on Friday with the forecast as it is so the decision was made to try to run it then.”

Discussing the track covers, Ford added: “The track was okay. When we went in this morning, of course there were puddles on the parts that weren’t covered but that was easily solve-able.

“If we could have ridden the meeting at noon, it would not have been a problem at all.

“I did an interview live on Sky Sports at 2.45pm and the rain absolutely bucketed down. The track has taken a substantial amount of rain since but, again, nothing that wouldn’t have been solve-able.

“An awful lot of money is wasted by the production team at BSkyB when they broadcast these (postponed) events, so a decision was made to try to alleviate the costs for everybody and to try to keep the fans on-side, rather than them making what would seemingly have been a wasted journey.”

The Robins lead by seven points following their first-leg victory at Blunsdon on Monday.