On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 16:49:31 GMT, Les Crossan wrote:

Living about 10 miles north of there I can confirm the heavy snow. At
one point it was really chucking it down.

"I was there" working I hasten to add, so home two hours early. B-)

There had been a heavy shower sometime between about 1300 and 1330. Just
after 1400 it started again with heavy hail, that cleared into rain and
by 1445 it was raining quite hard. Come kick off at 1500 the rain had
turned to wet snow and then about 1510 it was really snowing hard and
starting to settle. They played just over 20mins and the ref stopped the
match, partly due to the weather but another major component to the
decision was the condition of the pitch. It was a wash and doesn't drain
well, players where sliding for many yards. Early on a two Sunderland
players had a clash of heads (one having to go off later with a broken
nose if I heard talk back correctly) simply because they couldn't stop.

There was quite a bit of standing water and a layer of slush/snow so the
moment the ball touched down it would stop very quickly. Fulham seemed to
cotten onto this fact and stopped playing the modern long passing open
game and switched to close ball control and short passes. IMHO this is
why they scored, they took advantage of the conditions and Sunderland
failing to switch method of play quickly enough. Later on both teams
where playing the same tight, ball control, short pass game and there was
some pretty impressive stuff happening.

Couple of pics at the top of:

http://www.howhill.com/weather/images/winter/index.html

In the first one note the transition from the shelter of the stand roof
on the left to the open to the sky area on the right. On the second you
can see it starting to settle down the center of the pitch (it got a lot
whiter than that) and the reflection of the lights in the standing water
along the nearside touchline.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail