Pitch imperfect - cold snap leads to fixture headaches

The pressures that inclement weather can place on the GAA calendar were made clear once again on Saturday as Sunday's two All-Ireland Club semi-finals were postponed.

On Saturday morning, the GAA announced that Errigal Ciaran’s clash with Dr Crokes would be postponed to next Saturday with the meeting of Cuala and Coolera/Strandhill going the same way a few hours later.

While pre-seaons competitions are on a temporary hiatus, a number of challenge matches between counties preparing for the Allianz Leagues also fell by the wayside.

For the club games in particular, the window is closing in with the senior football final set to take place just eight days after next weekend’s refixed encounters. With the cold snap expecteed to last past the weekend, there could be some nervous glances if the sun doesn't show its face soon.

UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny remained under a blanket of snow on Sunday morning, and groundsman John Coogan explained the difficulties at this time of the year.

"Coming up to this we were in -4 or -5. Pitches were frozen solid," he told RTÉ Sport.

"Any activity on the pitch is going to create a lot of damage. All ground staff around the country are under pressure trying to get the pitches ready. This time of year, you would be hoping for rest and recovery for the pitch coming out of a long season.

"We finished our last games in November. We're closed for about four weeks. You'd be hoping just rest and recovery.

❄️ @MartyMofficial reports as the All-Ireland Club semi-finals fall foul of the weather pic.twitter.com/Bb19ggjL7O

"Games will go ahead in a few weeks' time. Training sessions are happening at the moment. Any activity or any bit of damage [is hard to recover from] as you can't really grow it out until you