Brakes vowing to keep the lights on

18 Jan 2017 By David Watters

EVO-STIK League Southern leaders Leamington are determined to fix a mystery fault responsible for floodlight failure and the abandonment of a second successive Tuesday night game.

Leamington chairman Jim Scott has vowed to call in the experts after play ground to a halt against Kettering on Tuesday night, the lights at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium, pictured, going out just before the interval with Paul Holleran's side trailing 1-0.

Three floodlights failed and after the players were taken off in the gloom, the fixture was abandoned by match officials shortly before 9pm with no guarantee the problem could be found and fixed imminently.

Western Power Distribution, who are working with the Brakes on upgrading their fuses, are blaming an internal fault for a second partial floodlight failure after the club's clash with Chesham United in the EVO-STIK League Southern's top flight before Christmas suffered the same fate.

Scott told warwickcourier.co.uk on Wednesday: “Last time it happened we had it checked and thought we had found the fault. We had it tested and it was all working. Clearly there is something somewhere in the system and at this moment we need experts to tell us the problems and establish what needs to be done.

“After the last time we had new fuses put in and have played Stratford and Chippenham okay since. We’re working with the same power and same levels of usage we’ve had for two years. We’ve not had any issues in the two years since the ground upgrade and now two times in four matches. It is not necessarily related to the floodlights but clearly something somewhere is tripping out a fuse."

He added: “However, if it’s one of our fuses we can just change it, when it is one of Western Power’s we have to wait for them to come out.”

The second power failure at their home came less week after the club thanked volunteers for helping them to pass a key ground grading inspection in November. Officials hailed fans last Friday after receiving confirmation from the FA Ground Grading Technical Panel that they'd been granted a 'B' Grade certificate needed to play at National League North and South level.

The certificate is valid for three years and a spokesman said: "A huge thank you to the volunteers who carried out the necessary additional work required to the North Bank and for other minor works and general maintenance in advance of the inspection."

Image courtesy of windmillwonderlandfanzine.wordpress.com

Follow the EVO-STIK League Southern on Twitter at @SouthernLeague1

Where next?

Ticket only admission for big game Larkhall Athletic are expecting a sell-out crowd for the visit of Hereford after announcing that their EVO-STIK League Southern clash with the league leaders next month would be all ticket.

Tuesday's Premier Division action review The floodlights failed again at the New Windmill Ground to prevent leaders Leamington from attempting to increase their advantage at the top of the EVO-STIK League Southern's Premier Division table on Tuesday night, writes Pitchero's Steve Whitney.