By Simon Cole

JUNIOR and youth football could be facing fixture chaos if the bad weather continues.

Waterlogged pitches have led to numerous postponements on five out of the last six weekends and earlier in the season many games were lost because of the petrol crisis.

Several leagues are now reconsidering their earlier decisions to shut down over the Christmas and New Year holiday.

Worse affected is the Wiltshire Times and News Mid-Wilts Youth and Minor League, where some teams have played only two games all season.

An emergency meeting was being held last night to discuss the fixture crisis, with one suggestion likely to be inviting clubs to fix up games over the children's Christmas holidays.

League secretary Shirley Brigham said: "We've lost over a third of the games so far this season. Week-in, week-out games aren't going ahead. We've got a late finish to the season already and it can't go on for ever.

"We've still got school holidays and trips to deal with yet. Some teams have only played two games all season. There really are a lot of problems.

"I can't ring every team and try and organise every game, because I'd be on the phone forever.

"We're thinking of asking clubs to arrange games themselves over the Christmas period."

In the Chippenham Sunday League some games have been organised for New Year's Eve in an attempt to ease the backlog.

A league spokesman said: "We've got over 12 cup games scheduled this weekend and if they get called off, we'll be very concerned.

"The weather just isn't getting any better. Luckily the past weekend wasn't too bad, but we can't arrange midweek fixtures yet because most of our clubs don't have floodlights.

"We've really got our fingers crossed for no snow over Christmas.

The Trowbridge League was due to close down on the Saturdays before and after Christmas, but now clubs are being invited to arrange fixtures among themselves to clear the backlog.

Senior clubs, many of them with floodlights, are not so badly off yet.

Ken Clarke, general secretary of the Screwfix Direct League, said: "There's nothing to panic about yet, but that could change if we get bad weather in January and February. Then we would have to look at the situation again.

"The club secretaries have been excellent in rearranging games and many clubs still have free Saturdays."