ALL this weekend's fixtures in the York Minster Engineering Football League have been postponed.

The league have made an early decision about Saturday's fixture programme after forecasts of more heavy snow and frost.

Referees' secretary Colin Atkinson said: "In view of the current weather situation and the dire forecast for the rest of the week, we have made an early decision to suspend all league fixtures for Saturday.

"Leaving the decision any longer will just waste everybody's time."

With no games having taken place in the league since December 12, Atkinson said the disruption was the worst since the November floods of 2000 and, in terms of snow, had not been seen since 1995.

With Britain in the grip of the worst winter for 28 years, Atkinson fears the whitewash could claim more games in the coming weeks with an eventual thaw of hard pitches causing them to flood.

And he hinted that, should the situation continue, the league may have to look at how they end the season.

“That’s a bit of a way off,” Atkinson said. “There’s not a lot we can do (at the moment). If it carries on we might have a serious think about what to do with the end of the season.

“We can extend for a couple of weeks, but then we run into the cricket and there is also the league cup, which has two rounds scheduled for March, and they take up Saturdays.”

While all postponed fixtures have already been rescheduled, teams which enjoy good runs in the cup competitions could be looking at a busy April.

But, at present, all Atkinson and league sides want to do is start playing football again.

When asked about the prospects for next week, he said: “That all depends on the weather. The frost is so hard in the ground that, even if we get a thaw towards the end of next week – which is forecast, we are going to have flooded pitches. We haven’t played since December 12 and, after the Christmas lay-off, everyone wants to get going.”

In Ryedale, games in the RJF Homes Beckett Football League can not be called off until Friday, but secretary Keith Sales said he was not expecting any fixtures to go ahead.