A damaged drain made it a blank Saturday for Badshot Lea.

The Isthmian South Central clash between sixth-placed Badshot Lea and fifth-placed Marlow was postponed an hour before kick-off because of an unexpectedly waterlogged pitch.

Badshot Lea manager Gavin Smith said: “We’ve never had any problems with our pitch in terms of holding water. There was lots of rain and we played on it the previous Tuesday, but the forecast was good.

“If there is a problem it’s usually in the corner where the players come out, and that was fine, but we walked around and saw one area which was really damaged in the far left corner by the stand. It was only five per cent of the pitch that wasn’t good but their management spotted it as soon as they came in, and the referee had a look and was in agreement.

“He said ‘what do you want to do?’ but we said playing on it would ruin the pitch and it was dangerous.

“Marlow were as good as gold about it but it was a bit embarrassing to have to call it off at 2pm with all the players there. It’s one of those things you don’t want to do but their management didn’t seem too disappointed.”

Smith said the club was getting an expert in to examine the drainage: “The pitch should drain the same all over but for some reason that patch had a problem.

“There had been a lot of rain and we should have checked it, but it had been dry for two days. Obviously there is something wrong in that area as it was completely different from the rest of the pitch and not very stable underfoot.”

The Baggies to Uxbridge in the league on Saturday. Smith said that with the drainage issue they were looking at reversing the venue of their Surrey Senior Cup tie at home to Cobham next Tuesday (November 21).