Devon and Cornwall football clubs face fixture postponements pile-up

Since the start of the season, 170 games have had weather-related postponements in the South West Peninsular League

Football clubs across Cornwall and Devon are facing a fixture pile-up due to prolonged wet weather.

Since the start of the season, 170 games have had weather-related postponements in the South West Peninsular League (SWPL).

Elsewhere, the start of the cricket season has also been delayed due to waterlogged pitches.

The chair of the SWPL, Phil Hiscox, said "the feeling is one of a mixture of frustration and anger".

"Frustration because people are used to playing but are now not able to, and anger because this seems to be never-ending.

"Our hands are tied, there is a lack of all-weather pitches in the south west and really there are none that can play spectator-based national league system matches."

Jon Colenzo said there is "no answer" to the amount of games needed to be played

Liskeard Athletic FC have to play nine men's first team games before 28 April.

Chairman and groundsman Jon Colenzo said: "We're calling games off for player safety so they don't get hurt, but then the fixtures now we're tied to, the players are playing three or four times a week."

He said it was "a double whammy, there's no answer to it unfortunately" as the season has to finish at the end of April.

He added: "We're not paid to play, we're all volunteers so we are literally working hard each day of the week to get games on for them to be called off."

Analysis from BBC Radio Cornwall's senior sports journalist Ross Ellis

Having matches postponed in the winter months is nothing unusual in Cornwall.

But this year had been unprecedented.

Cornwall's highest ranked football team, Truro City, have had to resort to playing their matches in Gloucester, in a race to finish their season.

At one point, they were faced with the prospect of playing 10 games in 20 days.

Other Cornish clubs are following suit.

Helston Athletic and Saltash United are playing their Cornish derby in Devon, because they've got an artificial surface there.

And the Cornish cricket season will not be starting on time, with some groundskeepers saying they're six weeks behind in their preparations.

There's a financial cost too. Postponements lead to clubhouses becoming unused and tickets going unsold.

When games are postponed, lots of people are affected.

Andrew Long, club secretary, said this weather had been a wash-out

Callington Town FC had 46 games postponed due to the weather - about a third of the games since the start of the season.

Andrew Long, club secretary, said: "The club's been going since 1989 and I joined in 1990, so I'm probably the oldest serving volunteer at the club.

"We had one time where we couldn't play between January and March but other than that this is the only time I've noticed that we've had so much rain."

A Football Association Spokesperson said: "We recognise the challenges faced by grassroots leagues and clubs across the country following this season's exceptional weather conditions.

"Our focus and ambition across grassroots football in England is to transform grass pitch quality and deliver further 3G pitches to improve player experience and ensure that more games are played as originally scheduled."