BRIDPORT and Balti Sports have seen their respective clashes against Bridgwater Town and Sherborne Town Reserves postponed due to waterlogged pitches. 

The Bees have not fulfilled a home fixture since December 2, when Adam Fricker's men earned a 3-0 win over Hallen. 

Since then, the St Mary's Field pitch has been beset with drainage issues, today's development being the third successive home fixture to be postponed. 

Staff at Bridport had cleared the club's drains in a bid to deal with the excess water, but those attempts have proven unsuccessful amidst heavy prolonged rainfall. 

Bridport next play Clevedon Town away on Saturday, January 13. 

Meanwhile, Balti Sports’ hopes of returning to action since early December were thwarted after their Dorset Premier League clash at Weymouth College with Sherborne Town Reserves was postponed yesterday due to a waterlogged pitch.

Nott’s men were due to face a Zebras’ side that has experienced an upturn in fortunes of late, drawing 2-2 at last season’s champions Holt United and securing an excellent 4-2 win over Merley Cobham Sports.

But Balti have been struck with a combination of postponements and the winter break, and the fixture against Sherborne Town Reserves was supposed to be their first match since December 9.

Instead they will now not play until January 13 when they are away at Sturminster Newton in the League Cup.

He told Echosport: “We’ve had bad luck in October and we had the bad weather in November and December and now we’ve had another four weeks off.

“We know we’ve got to be fully on it. We got the players in at training just to get an extra session and we had a session on Tuesday as well.

“We wanted to be ready.”

Nott was keen to open Sports’ account for 2018 with all three points, but did not foresee a repeat of the 6-0 win over Town on the opening day of the season.

He said: “It’s one we were looking to win and getting off to a good start in 2018 is massive, it would have set the tempo for the year.”

Star striker Ricky Lane was due to return for Balti after injury, but Oscar Preece, Matt Roberts and Rory Zima would have missed out through illness.

Today's fixtures involving Weymouth, Dorchester Town and Portland United remain on.