[Law] When can/should yo call the game off for fog?

[Ciaran Trainor]

A general discussion in the bar New Year's Day on games played in days gone by which probably shouldn't have gone ahead but one thing stumped us all when recalling a game where spectators couldn't see much but game went ahead.
Is there any guidance out there?

 

[didds]

ISTR there's a classic B&W clip of some game - varsity match? - which is so heavily fogged that the commentator is just burbling something like "A have the ball... oh, not its B... maybe its A - yes, A . now B " ..

etc

didds

 

[OB..]

ISTR there's a classic B&W clip of some game - varsity match? - which is so heavily fogged that the commentator is just burbling something like "A have the ball... oh, not its B... maybe its A - yes, A . now B " ..

etc

didds

IIRC the commentator was Nigel Starmer-Smith, who tried to follow play by identifying the direction in which the players were running. However I cannot find anything on the internet to back up my memory.

 

[Taff]

IIRC the commentator was Nigel Starmer-Smith, who tried to follow play by identifying the direction in which the players were running. However I cannot find anything on the internet to back up my memory.

Mmmm. Sounds familiar, but I did find THIS and THIS on YouTube.

 

[ianh5979]

I normally work on the principal that if I can't see the posts from the half way line we are not playing

 

[FatherFlipper]

I remember one of the Super 10/12/14/15/delete as applicable finals a few years back, that I watched on telly and you couldn't see a thing. Even the commentators were having a giggle about it. Apparently, pitch-side it was ok visibility, just anything from TV angle was a screen of pure grey.

I also vaguely remember a Quins game from about a decade ago (Newcastle at home), was a week night for some reason. I'd been working at the game up until kick-off. About two hours before a mist rolled in, and put the game in doubt. Again, right on pitch level you could see what was happening. More than two rows back in the stand - nothing. Rather than stay and watch the game, I just gave up about ten minutes in and went home.

Doesn't really help with the question I'm afraid. I would imagine that at the levels most of us referee, the worry about the fans back in the top of the stand, or Sky TV cameras not being able to see doesn't apply. So I too would go with "can I see the posts?".

 

[didds]

However I cannot find anything on the internet to back up my memory.

me neither OB

didds

 

[Phil E]

I normally work on the principal that if I can't see the posts from the half way line we are not playing

That would be my yard stick as well.

 

[Dickie E]

I remember one of the Super 10/12/14/15/delete as applicable finals a few years back, that I watched on telly and you couldn't see a thing.

It was 2006. Deep in the bowels of Mordor. Hobbits v Orcs from memory.

 

[4eyesbetter]

I also vaguely remember a Quins game from about a decade ago (Newcastle at home), was a week night for some reason. I'd been working at the game up until kick-off. About two hours before a mist rolled in, and put the game in doubt. Again, right on pitch level you could see what was happening. More than two rows back in the stand - nothing. Rather than stay and watch the game, I just gave up about ten minutes in and went home.

This is interesting to me; last time I looked, the RFL professional game policy requires the match commissioner to go into each stand at the furthest point from the pitch where spectators can watch from, and if both sets of posts aren't visible from there, then visibility is too poor.

 

[talbazar]

I seem to recall soccer AR checking for visibility before games on TV: the rule seems to be the two AR must see each other's flag from a pitch corner to the opposite corner (diagonally).
But that's for soccer.

Why not boot a ball to touch and check you can see where it lands and where it crossed the plane of touch. That sounds like the minimum...
Posts from half way seems quite right too.

My two cents,
Pierre.

 

[didds]

posts from half way would suggest that the far touchline would (mostly!) also be visible.

didds

 

[TheBFG]

did a game last year with AR's, although the posts were visible from H/W the AR's couldn't see each other, this was mainly due to the floodlights making things even worse.

As it was, player was sparked out 26 mins into the match (physios refused to move him) and it took the ambulance 1.5hrs to turn up so the match was called off any way :shrug: