Western Power put spotlight on Brakes for abandonment

Western Power Distribution has blamed 'an internal fault at the football club' for the problem which caused a second successive Leamington Tuesday evening game to be abandoned.
Play comes to a halt at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium as a section of the floodlights go out. Picture: Tim NunanPlay comes to a halt at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium as a section of the floodlights go out. Picture: Tim Nunan
Play comes to a halt at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium as a section of the floodlights go out. Picture: Tim Nunan

Brakes trailed 1-0 to Kettering Town when a power outage caused three of the floodlights to fail, plunging parts of the Phillips 66 Community Stadium into semi-darkness.

The players were taken off the pitch by referee Gareth Hubbard and with no guarantee the problem could be fixed imminently, Hubbard abandoned the game shortly before 9pm.

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Brakes chairman Jim Scott reacted by saying the club were “treating it very seriously” following on from a similar call-off at home to Chesham.

“Last time it happened we had it checked and thought we had found the fault,” said Scott.

“We had it tested and it was all working.

“Clearly there is something somewhere in the system.

“And at this moment we need experts to tell us the problems and establish what needs to be done.”

However, Western Power Distribution (WPD) were unequivocal in their assessment on Wednesday, saying: “The fuses that cut out yesterday and before Christmas are an internal fault at the football club (not on WPD’s network) due to too much load.

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“WPD restored the power and are now liaising with the club re advice on upgrading their fuses.”

Scott was unable to pinpoint any changes around the ground which could have put further strain on the system but did admit they were at the mercy of Western Power should a problem occur with one of their fuses.

“After the last time we had new fuses put in and have played Stratford and Chippenham okay since.

“We’re working with the same power and same levels of usage we’ve had for two years.

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“We’ve not had any issues in the two years since the ground upgrade and now two times in four matches.

“It is not necessarily related to the floodlights but clearly something somewhere is tripping out a fuse.

“However, if it’s one of our fuses we can just change it, when it is one of Western Power’s we have to wait for them to come out.”

Vouchers were handed out to spectators after the call-off to enable them to attend the rearranged fixture for free.

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