Fog

With most games in the vicinity called off due to frozen pitches, the artificial surface at Ilkley Town provided the best prospect for some Saturday afternoon football. Their ground at Ben Rhydding is right next to the River Wharfe though, so fog was always going to be a further issue. 

Luckily, the game was deemed playable. From mid-way along  you could just about see the other side of the pitch and at least the white outline of each goal. Ilkley switched from their normal dark blue home strip to a hi-vis outfit, and this was a big help. Garstang were the visitors, and it was more of a struggle to pick out their red kit.

Typically I ended up standing next to a West Ham fan, so the afternoon took another dimension as we traded updates from the relegation battle between my team and theirs that was happening at the other end of the country. 

Ilkley took a 2-0 lead with goals either side of half-time, but in the last quarter of the game the fog grew thicker and thicker and it was difficult to make out what was going on. They persisted with the game though, meaning Ilkley had secured another valuable win for their promotion push.

A further set of images are over on Twitter.