The ice and snow of winter can prove to be football's fiercest adversaries at times (well, second fiercest behind FIFA) -- so fierce that it has even driven groundsmen to use video-game weapons to combat them.
In response to a question about the rumor that Blackpool once thawed out its pitch with a flamethrower during the horrific winter of 1962-63, the Guardian clarifies:
[I]t was actually Norwich who attempted, unsuccessfully, to defrost their playing surface with fire. Their scheduled FA Cup third-round tie at home to Blackpool had been postponed 11 times, and, as the same piece of archive reveals, they were willing to try just about anything by the end. "In an attempt to get the game played, the Carrow Road pitch was treated with flamethrowers on 22 January [1963] as, according to a Norwich spokesman, 'a last desperate effort'. However they 'served no purpose whatsoever' for 'as fast as the ice melted it froze again'. An icebreaker was also used but it too proved ineffective."
Flamethrower versus regenerating demon ice? Why was this battle not recorded?!
Sure, it sounds ridiculous and if it had defeated the ice, it probably would have set the pitch ablaze, but in fairness to whoever had this awesome idea, who among us wouldn't bust out the flamethrowers for a match that had been postponed 11 times? There's only so much a person can take before he starts shooting fire out of a gun and laughing like a maniac.
Calvin de Haan Michael Del Zotto Steven Delisle James DeLory
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