Until last night the pitch has been in superb condition. That was before last night's frost with another forecast for tonight, so a decison will either be taken tonight or first thing in the morning before Chester muster their Welsh contingent and set off.
The irony is that since the win over Burnage on December 17th all of the Brinkburn pitches have been spot on - with the notable exception of a bit of ice on January 14th. That just happened to be the only Saturday in January when we had a home fixture. Morley should have visited that day and are due to come next Saturday the 11th.
A lack of rugby has a massive impact on club cash flow and the Hon. Tres. is keener than most to see some games played. The RFU is currently asking all clubs for their views on the league structure and whether leagues should have more, or less, teams in them,
Our view is that we certainly don't want fewer games each season, and would ideally like a new fixture computer which balances fixtures evenly throughout the season. The current "computer" gave us just one home fixture per month in December, January and February.
Of course, games have to be played eventually and six of our last nine games will be at Brinkburn. Hopefully our supporters will regain the habit of spending Saturday afternoon watching rugby - it may even inspire better turnouts at training.
Whenever it is played the Chester fixture will be an interesting one. They play an attractive brand of rugby blowing us away in the first half of the first fixture and running in more than 30 points before we got ourselves sorted at half time.
At the time Chester were favourites for promotion but realistically their hopes will once again rest on the play-offs. The club is keen for promotion and this season's return of four defeats, so far, has led to some soul searching with coach Tim Doig revealing in the local press that he had considered packing in after the defeat at Beverley.
Our ambition is for a top six finish at least. We have players such as Gareth Eddy on the way back from injury but work commitments for the likes of Gavin Robinson and Anth Carr will open the door for players such as Ross Wood to really cement a first team place.
Carr is available for the Chester game with Wood unable to train because of an eye problem, However, he will be on the bench.
Stu Waites is also recovering from a leg injury so Colin Cheslin is selected at full back. Paul Moss returns at fly half in place of Gareth Foreman who is away on international duty - warming the terraces at Murrayfield.
Tom Dixon underwent a minor op this week and will be recuperating for a couple of weeks so his place is taken by Michael Hogan.
WEST: Colin Cheslin, Scott Butcher, Andrew Cheslin, Luke Watson, Greg Edwards, Paul Moss, Andrew Foreman, Anth Carr, Liam Bailey, Adam Coates, Andrew Davies, Michael Hogan, Dan Boatman [c], Jon Boatman, Michael Taylor. Reps: Peter Hodgson, Ryan Painter, Ross Wood.
CHESTER: Pat Coy, Pete Rees, Lloyd Hayes, Tom Blackwell, Sean Green, Liam McGovern, Josh Leach, John Shirley, Nathan Sandland-Jones, Ben Williams, Llion Jones, Ross White, Aled Zachary, Andy Moore (c), Will Bown. Reps:Gavin Hughes, Brad Nicholson, Marcus Lyon.