Snow disrupts sporting schedules

Freezing weather claimed a Premier League football match among many sporting fixtures abandoned across the country. Arsenal's game against Bolton tonight was called off, joining two Carling Cup semi-final matches between Blackburn and Aston Villa and Manchesters City and United as victims of the snow. Racing suffered too , with planned National Hunt meetings on Friday at Bangor, near Wrexham, and Fontwell, West Sussex, cancelled. Ed Gretton, clerk of the course at Bangor, said: "Five inches of snow on top of frozen ground left us with as much chance of racing as England have of winning the third Test in South Africa ." A race meeting at Kempton was abandoned for safety reasons due to inaccessibility for paramedics, with one planned for tomorrow looking doubtful. Meetings planned at Ludlow and Huntingdon were called off, as were Saturday fixtures at Wincanton, Hereford and Sedgefield. Two Premiership rugby matches this weekend – Sale Sharks' meeting with Saracens at Edgeley Park on Saturday and Newcastle against Gloucester at Kingston Park on Sunday – are off.