Lights go out again on the Old Brighton women’s team

A women’s footy match in Brighton had to be abandoned on Saturday night when the lights went out in the third quarter. It’s the third time it has happened to the club this season and comes just days after assurances from the council it wouldn’t happen again.

Old Brighton players (from left) Layne Davies, Morgan McGregor, Siena Visentini and Sophie Ambrose have been left in the dark three times this season. Picture: Josie Hayden

It’s happened again.

The lights have gone out on the Old Brighton women’s football team for the third time this season, leaving coach Peter Grant fuming.

The weekend’s twilight match against Old Ivanhoe at the Brighton Beach Oval had to be abandoned in the third quarter when the ground lights went off at 6pm, despite assurances from Bayside Council they would stay on until 7.30pm.

Two Old Brighton twilight games had to be called off earlier in the season when the lights, controlled by timer, switched off.

A frustrated Grant said the situation was a disgrace.

“It’s unacceptable, complete and utter incompetence,’’ he said.

“I have it in writing from the council that they were set to go off at 7.30pm. They were being cute in not giving us a straight answer and we demanded a straight answer and we finally got it.

The lights go out at Brighton Beach Oval last night.

“In the back of my mind I was concerned it would happen again, despite the fact we had it in writing. Come 6pm, they went off. As far as I’m concerned we won’t be playing twilight games again. You can’t risk it.’’

Old Brighton was leading the match by one point.

Grant said his players and the Old Ivanhoe team and officials were “completely deflated’’.

“It’s seemingly a poor reflection on our club, but I know our club made every effort to make sure everything was in place after (what happened earlier in the season),’’ he said.

“And they (the council) didn’t do it. It wrecks the competition. We’ve now got three games that have been decided by the rules of the game, not the proficiency of the teams, and that’s a complete disgrace.

“How can you encourage women’s football or any kind of community sport when you don’t provide any adequate facilities? In this case we’re talking about setting lights at the right time. It’s not that hard.’’

He said the abandoned games had consequences for players awards such as best and fairests and goalkicking, as well as team percentages.

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In a statement to Leader this month the council said it had no record of the club asking for the lights to go off at 7.45pm, even though they did in earlier matches.

“Following these unfortunate events, we have contacted the league and clubs to establish the upcoming game times so that the lighting timers can be set to match the scheduled game times,’’ the council said.

Ahead of yesterday’s game Old Brighton pressed the council on the issue.

Last Thursday morning a council officer emailed the club saying “the lights were set a few weeks ago, as requested’’.

“For Saturday’s they are set to 4pm-7.30pm, which is in accordance with the club’s allocations and fixtures,’’ the officer said.

The council said it controlled the lighting system at sports grounds by timer to prevent lights being left on overnight, “a historical issue that has a negative impact on residential amenity’’.