Blackout!

Last night saw Great Shelford visit Ely City for the preliminary round of the Cambridgshire Invitation Cup. It might not sound like a big match, especially as Great Shelford play in the Cambridgeshire Senior League, 2 steps below Ely (who are a step 5 team) and the same league as Ely City's reserve team, but the crowd was bigger than they usually get on Saturday, although there were no programmes available.

When I was leaving Cambridge the weather was pretty bad and it was raining. I feared for the worst and that the game would be played in a storm, but by kick off the evening had turned into a fairly pleasent autumn night. The pitch was obviously a bit skiddy and I thought we would probably be in for a lot of goals, especially as Ely had a fairly strong side out, despite top scorer Andy Petit being off the team sheet and it also looked as if Great Shelford might be amongst the goals, as Ely were having to play the 'A' Teams goalkeeper.

The first half was a fairly dull affair though and the highlight was getting to meet and have a chat with a guy who went around the country following Ely City, Port Vale, Colwyn Bay and Kings Lynn, although he lived in Essex. He also mentioned that he'd been to a couple of Accrington Stanley games lately. I'm hoping that next time I see him that he has added Blyth Spartans to his portfolio, just so he has a good geographical spread!

Luckily, a couple of changes were made at half time, and one of Ely's subs (who I don't know the name of) put Great shelford under pressure with some tough tackling and long throws that made Rory Delap's efforts look more like Walter the Softee of Beano fame. Ely took the lead on 55 minutes with a goal from Dean Blackman and should have been awarded another goal soon sfterwards when another long throw was put in by an Ely striker who was judged to have fouled him.

However, things were to take a twist and it wasn't due to a concerted effort by the Great Shelford team, who didn't seem able to get anywhere near the Ely goal, but through a power cut. On 88 minutes Ely or at least that half of Ely was plunged into darkness. The referee decided to wait 15 minutes to see what happened, but the only visible light was from the cathedral. So, that was it. The first time I had ever been to a match that was abandoned, but let's face it in Ukraine they would probably have found some miners' helmets and made the players play in those.

One thing is for sure the already badly lit walk to the ground was even more hair raising on the way back, and I was a bit disappointed to lose my new friend before I could get him a pint back.

So what's next? Well, I'm not sure. To be honest even though it was the last minute of the game and Great Shelford din't look like scoring it would seem fairer to have a replay, as a run in this cup could end in a fairly lucrative tie with Histon or one of the Cambridge teams. On the other hand it was the last minute and with the number of competitions both teams are involved in they might agree for the result to stand. I'm not actually clear about what will happen at the moment as the Cambridge Evening News says that there will be a meeting to decide if the result stands, as do the various websites. However, Asya seems to think that on Star Radio they said that Ely had been awarded the victory, we'll see.

i didn't take my camera to the game, but the picture shows the only available light last night, although obviously from closer up