"After a three-week break in the National League campaign, in which seasonal excesses might be suspected to have undermined athletic cond-itioning, another Saturday without a game was most unwelcome.

With our opponents for the next two weeks managing to play - against each other - this further exacerbated concern about such an unusually long spell without competitive action.

It also disturbed the sequence of fixtures, in which we had established a January target of 15 points.

The first month of the New Year promised home games with Blaydon and New Brighton, as well as a visit to struggling Bedford Athletic.

Not only has this itinerary been disrupted, but we now face a restart to the campaign with a tricky visit to Rugby Lions.

It also means that the next Saturday without a league game is somewhat distant, on April 16, some 14 weeks away.

It is uncertain whether Blaydon would have been able to battle their way across the Pennines for Saturday's scheduled encounter, but that diff-iculty would certainly have been greater than playing on the Mint Bridge pitch.

Despite the meterological traumas of the previous night, a drying wind meant that the surface was better than it had been for other games, and when inspected at 9am, faced a further five hours of drying conditions.

However, the referee had travelled the previous day from the Midlands, on his first appointment to Kendal, and was in no mood for imagination.

His spirit of adventure had clearly been sapped by a night of listening to wind and rain, and he was anxious to get out of Cumbria alive, to confirm what everyone in the south thinks about the north.

Without tolerance of imperfect playing conditions, it is unlikely that we will get through the next 14 weeks without further disruption.

It is difficult to predict the effect of long breaks between games. Sometimes this can allow injuries to clear up, and bring new vigour and enthusiasm to the campaign.

Alternatively, it can deprive a team of rhythm and fluency, and at best brings an uncertainty to events.

Having gained maximum points in the two games before the interruption, it is certainly not a break we would have welcomed.

It now becomes important to recapture that momentum immediately, to seek a further 10 points in January.

Three teams are certain to be relegated and our last two games are against two of the candidates for this indignity. It is crucial for us to start 2005 strongly, in order to keep the unseemly relegation battle at arm's length.

More positively, it is important for the club to build on the quality of rugby seen frequently in 2004, and establish a foundation and consistency which will allow us to put pressure, this year and next, on the top five teams.

Whatever the New Year may bring, there is unlikely to be any respite from the weekly emotional rollercoaster of exhilaration and despair.

It is no place for faint hearts.