ALUN Rossiter was not best pleased at seeing tonight’s Elite League fixture at Lakeside Hammers called off, although stopped short of firing both barrels at the Essex outfit.

The postponement was the second in as many days for meetings between the two sides, with Thursday night’s clash at the Abbey Stadium also cancelled due to the weather.

With the threat of heavy evening rain, Swindon postponed their home fixture at 1pm in the afternoon despite the skies being clear at the time to save their visitors the trouble of a fruitless 300-mile round trip.

However, the Robins had made significant headway into their journey east this evening before being told a sudden downpour had flooded the Arena-Essex Raceway track just before 4pm, forcing the meeting to be postponed and rearranged for Friday, July 22.

The Hammers had tweeted at lunchtime to say no rain had fallen on the track all day and that clear weather was forecast in the evening.

Forecasts earlier in the week, however, had predicted rain in the region throughout Friday afternoon and into the evening and Swindon team boss Rossiter felt that common sense did not prevail.

“I can see their point but it was always going to happen wasn’t it, just like Thursday night – we made the right call,” said Rossiter.

“In fairness, I think they tried to get it on because when we go back there we are going to struggle with our Somerset contingent missing.

“They did try to get it on but in the end, we all know what these isolated showers are like nowadays. They are not just little ones, when it comes down, it certainly comes down.

“I was on the M25 and had got as far as the M1. It’s just frustrating because it’s a Friday, there’s traffic, it’s chock-a-block, it’s just a nightmare isn’t it?

“I got told pretty much after I got on the M25. They rang up and said we’ve just had a big downpour, it’s off. There’s not a lot you can say. There’s no point getting upset about it, it is what it is.”

The postponement means that the Robins will go almost three weeks without a meeting. They last rode on Saturday, June 4 when they triumphed at Leicester Lions and are not scheduled to race again until the re-arranged home meeting with Lakeside on Thursday, June 23.

Rossiter took a crumb of consolation in the fact that Australian Nick Morris now has more time to recover after suffering an ankle injury at Leicester last time out.

“In a good way, it gives Nick another week to get back to full fitness. He would have been fit to ride on Friday, he’s on the mend and coming on well,” said Rossiter.

“He wanted to ride, they all wanted to ride, but unfortunately, there has been a big downpour and that’s that.”