GAMES called off, press conferences cancelled, meetings abandoned. Even the life of a sports reporter isn't all glamour, glitz and prawn sandwiches you know, as MIKE BACON reports.

Mike Bacon

GAMES called off, press conferences cancelled, meetings abandoned. Even the life of a sports reporter isn't all glamour, glitz and prawn sandwiches you know, as MIKE BACON reports.

RIGHT, that's it. I'll admit it, I'm the Jonah.

No sooner had the call come through yesterday morning that Roy Keane was 'stuck in snow' and wouldn't make yesterday's press conference at Portman Road, than the boys in the office were pointing fingers.

“Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,” Stuart Watson sang, as he caught up with his Twitter latest, because Colchester United's game at Yeovil was already off.

Carl Marston too, the EADT Ipswich Town man, was left in disbelief.

“That's two Keane press conferences you've covered Bacon, and both have been affected by the weather,” he informs me, as if I didn't' know.

“And you were supposed to cover the game at Scunthorpe; that was called off too. And how many speedway meetings have you covered that were abandoned?

I know, I know, I know.

Yep.

Even I am starting to feel I am the Archant sports department Jonah.

Sitting in the Portman Road car park yesterday morning at 8.30am (I hadn't got the message it had moved to 11am - taxi for Bacon), I looked around the snowy practice pitch and a touch of d�j� vu whistled through my mind.

Just three weeks previous, I was in exactly the same position, at exactly the same time ahead of Roy Keane's press conference for the Scunthorpe game in Lincolnshire.

I was told to come back in five hours then . . . yesterday I was told not to bother coming back at all!

Returning to the Scunthorpe game, it was my colleague Elvin King who told me not to bother setting out on the Saturday morning of the match, the game had been postponed - frozen pitch.

I felt a Jonah then, I feel even more of one now.

Fortunately for Town fans I'm not in the Blues reporting seat at The Walkers Stadium tomorrow, my press conference duties were due to Elvin King being sidelined, so at least there is little doubt the game will go ahead, with me far away from the Stadium.

Yes, the weather can be a nightmare, especially when you have pages to fill and deadlines to meet.

My postponed clashes/meetings are not restricted to the professional football game, and include speedway and non-league football.

I don't cover cricket, but who would want to be a cricket correspondent stuck at a Test Match with the rain coming down? What do you file then?

You see sports reporting isn't all glamour and mixing with the celebs.

Not that I'm really complaining of course . . . just call me Jonah.

(N) HOW has the weather affected your sporting viewing? Have you ever made a wasted trip to a sporting venue? Let us know your funny/strange tales. sport@archant.co.uk

IN FACT BOX

SO you think reporting on sporting events is all free beer and sandwiches?

Well my friends you're wrong - unless they are prawn sandwiches of course. Here are a few sporting occasions the Archant Suffolk sports team have attended . . . but not seen much action.

NICK GARNHAM

1 - I arrived at White Hart Lane circa 1970 to find the Spurs v Ipswich match had been postponed. Early copy filed!

2 - Arriving at The Walks last season to find the King's Lynn v Hadleigh United match had been postponed.

MIKE BACON

1 - Getting five miles and ten minutes from Belle Vue speedway 2004 v Ipswich Witches, to get the call it was off. An eight-hour round journey for nothing.

2 - Sitting in the car park at Poole Speedway v Ipswich 2005, with the crowd waiting to go in. Down came the rain, meeting off. Another eight-hour round journey for nothing.

STUART WATSON

1 - October 2008, covering a Tuesday night match between Northampton and Colchester. However, after driving 100 miles through the snow, the radio informed the game was off . . . just as I pulled into the driveway of the Sixfields Stadium.

2 - Playing for an amateurish Saturday league side in Essex, on numerous occasions we would turn up at a ground only to be told the opposition didn't have enough players. It meant we had to endure three free points and an afternoon down the pub instead.

CARL MARSTON

1 - Gillingham v Colchester United: this fixture was called off not once, but twice, during the mid-1990s. On both occasions I was at the Stadium, and on both occasions it was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.

2 - Cambridge United v Blackburn Rovers: a big promotion clash during the early 1990s, with John Beck and Kenny Dalglish as the respective managers. I was there, the game went ahead, but was called off at half-time due to a frozen pitch.