(Article first appeared in abridged form in the Express and Echo, Saturday 22nd March 2008)

Water, water everywhere. Exeter City seemed to be unlucky in that their game proved to be one of a just a mere handful that fell foul of the rain of last Saturday.

Had the match with Droylsden started, and it was never going to due to the state of the playing surface, then it could have been worse for everyone concerned - abandonment.

The City groundstaff would not have been too pleased either, watching the hallowed turf, possibly being ruined for the rest of the season.

The Grecians have been involved in several abandoned matches over the years, with at least three of them occurring during FA Cup ties.

The first happened in November 1910 in a home tie with Reading. The match had been switched to the County Ground in Exeter, because the St James' Park pitch was not big enough to meet F.A. regulations.

With the score standing at 1-1, fog descended and caused the abandonment in the 80th minute. Exeter went on to win 1-0 in the rearranged tie back at the County Ground five days later.

On another occasion City were on the end of a hammering at Southampton, losing 5-0, in the first round of the FA Cup in January 1925, when once again fog intervened and the match was stopped in the 77th minute. City lost the rearranged tie 3-1.

In December 1936 Exeter's match at Walthamstow Avenue came to a premature end after 65 minutes with the scoreline 1-1, due to the ever thickening fog which enveloped the ground.

This was especially unfortunate for Walthamstow as the tie had attracted their record attendance of 11,131. When the tie was played again five days later the crowd had dipped to 8,000, but City won 3-2.

A few Football League fixtures have also been abandoned for various reasons. On two occasions matches were halted abruptly because of bad light!

The first time was in November 1919 when Exeter City were drawing 0-0 at Crystal Palace. With just five minutes remaining the light was so bad that it became impossible to follow the play.

The Palace crowd were understandably far from happy with the referee, Mr. Rundle, when he abandoned the game, and the poor fellow was jostled and jeered as he left the field.

It was only thanks to the intervention of Grecians goalkeeper Dick Pym, who tried to protect the match official, that prevented any physical harm coming to the referee.

The second match to be abandoned through bad light was also in London, this time in November 1946.

City were playing at the Brisbane Road ground of Leyton Orient, and in the 81st minute play was halted with the 'O's' leading 2-1.

It wasn't always on the road that games were abandoned though, for the City reserves Western League encounter at St James' Park on Boxing Day 1963 ended early.

City's opponents, Bristol City Reserves, were leading 4-1 at the time, when in the 70th minute the referee abandoned the game after the foggy conditions progressively got worse and worse.

The first Football League match to be abandoned at St James' Park occurred on 6th April l 1991, against Shrewsbury Town.

Exeter were leading 1-0, when proceedings were brought a halt as the pitch became waterlogged after a torrential downpour that left pools of water all over the surface.

The groundstaff tried their best to sweep the water away to no avail, and during the half-time interval the referee, following a look at the surface, decided it was impossible to continue. half an hour later the sun was shining!

One of the most unusual abandoned games involving the Grecians came at Plymouth Argyle, when the reserves travelled there for a Plymouth and District League match in December 1919.

The rain fell continuously throughout the first half making conditions virtually impossible. However, they must have suited Argyle as they were leading 6-0!

During the interval four of City's players refused to return for the second half because of the conditions, so the game restarted with Exeter taking to the field with just seven players!

Plymouth added three more goals before the referee abandoned the game midway through the half with the rain still falling. The Plymouth & District League ordered the result to stand.

There have been other instances of abandoned matches played by Exeter City, but the above are just small selection of them.