This is just a very quick blog (the longer one will be posted on Tuesday) after the postponement of the fixture against Coventry.
I know, having spoken to some people who were planning on going, that there was a certain amount of surprise that the fixture was called off, given that home fixtures at this time of year tend to be as rare as the proverbial teeth of a hen, and that certain parts of Swindon had not seen any sign of the wet stuff, let alone having been drowned in it.
So here's a brief version of what happened (more when I get back from the Womad music festival just up the road).
Heavy rain had been forecast to hit the area at about 3pm. We had prepared accordingly and had plans afoot to let the rain do much of the watering for us and then have time to apply a good top dressing of dry shale to produce what we hoped would be a really good track.
Heavy skies throughout the morning threatened rain but not much came from this. The actual rain started at just before 3pm but was nowhere near as heavy as we had been told by the various meteorological services that we had consulted.
But at 3.30 the heavens opened and it poured down. Reports came in of flash flooding not far from the track - it was so heavy at Blunsdon that we had a stream running through the pits. And then it got heavier and heavier. Track stalwart Roy Hicks, who lives just round the corner from the stadium later reported to me that the top of Blunsdon Hill had received nearly 10mm of rain in two hours.
The track was completely waterlogged - we could hardly walk on it, it was that slippery.
And so, to the consternation of many track staff in and around other, drier areas of Swindon, there was no choice other than to call the whole thing off.
