If you had fog down on your Thursday weather bingo card, then congratulations. The rest of the country has been sweltering the past few days, Easington Colliery found itself with little in the way of visibility.
Something that will always hamper the chances of a football match being played and by the time Newcastle Blue Star arrived at their scheduled opponents ground, there was absolutely no chance of this one getting underway.
Which means Blue Star have fallen foul of the weather on two separate occasions already and as a consequence, it is only meteorological opposition that has beaten last season’s Northern Alliance champions during the 2023/24 campaign.
Then again, the fact that Thursday’s encounter did not get started may actually prove to be beneficial in the end. Had the fixture at Easington gone ahead, it would have meant two league fixtures in less than 48 hours.
A rather tortuous piece of scheduling for Brian Smith and his management team to deal with, now they can simply look ahead to the visit of Boldon Community Association and a team that also finds themselves in the early promotion mix.
Due to late midweek inactivity, NE15’s finest have ceded ground to Blyth Town and Horden ahead of them. However, they do have two games in hand and a maximum from those would take them to the top of the table.
Of course, for that to eventually happen, you must also knock off the opposition that stands in your way before any rescheduling takes place. Boldon find themselves just two places worse off and after defeat to Ryton & Crawcrook on Wednesday, they will be keen to return to winning ways themselves.
Something which sets up this upcoming clash rather nicely. A warm welcome goes out to the travelling Boldon team and support and for those who lend their voice to the home team, make sure to bring the noise throughout.