On this day in 1979....

[TheresNoEsInBlack]

1979: Inverness Thistle and Falkirk finally played their Scottish FA Cup tie - after it was postponed a British record 29 times  :010: because of the weather.

[+Gringo]

Can't blame me for those... :015: :015:

[Charles Bannerman]

Remember it well. That was the second cold winter in a row and people were claiming that a new ice age was on the way. Jags lost in the end!

[L_G]

This is one of these questions that crops up in football trivia from time to time.

[Kingsmills]

Huge anticlimax in the end with Jags well beaten by half time.

[tm4tj]

I was there

0-4 if I remember.

:019:

[Kingsmills]

Indeed !

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I was there

0-4 if I remember.

:019:

Wow..great memories. Thus thread has fair cheered me up.

[Charles Bannerman]

IHE.... get a grip.... how much of 1979  or indeed the 70s as a decade do you really remember!?

[CaleyD]

Not much as a result of the stamps I'm guessing

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Intersting article below from the Guardian archives that may cause a few arguements at pub quizzes if true:

Wednesday March 22, 2006

"Down at the pub the other night, a friend of mine bullishly claimed he'd heard that a match was once postponed on almost 30 separate occasions. Is he having me on?" asks Jonathan Gainter

Hail your friend, Jonathan, as he speaks the truth. Back in the icy winter of 1979, the Scottish Cup second-round clash between Inverness Thistle and Falkirk had to be postponed no fewer than 29 times. The original date for the game was January 6, but the clubs had to wait 47 days until the Kingsmills ground was eventually declared playable, on February 22. When the match finally took place, four first-half goals helped Falkirk seal their spot in the third round. However, because of the 71-day period between the second-round draw and Falkirk's win, Billy Little's side were forced to visit Dundee just three days later in round three, where a late penalty ended their cup journey.

Incredible as these 29 postponements are, the tie is still eclipsed by another Scottish Cup game that took place 16 years earlier, when sub-zero conditions again played havoc with the fixture list - and not just in Scotland but all across Britain. More than 400 English league and cup matches fell victim to the weather and the season had to be extended by a month on both sides of the border. While one FA Cup third-round tie between Coventry and Lincoln eventually took place at the 16th time of asking, the clash between Airdrie and Stranraer was busy setting a British record of 33 postponements. For Airdrie it was 34th time lucky as they ran out 3-0 victors.

Incidentally, the worst day of domestic cancellations didn't occur in 1962-63. That honour went to February 3 1940, when only one of 56 wartime league matches beat the weather. Plymouth made the most of their moment in the limelight with a 10-3 thumping of Bristol City.