In an ironic twist of fate the heavy rain of recent days has meant the Dublin senior football final between St Vincent's and UCD has been postponed a day until Sunday. The winners will then have a week's recovery before playing Wicklow champions Rathnew in the Leinster club championship quarter-final. Ian O'Riordan reports.

Last Monday night the Leinster Council had refused to postpone the championship fixture by a week, forcing the Dublin County Board to schedule their football final for this afternoon at Parnell Park, with the winners then facing a demanding trip to Aughrim less than 24 hours to face Rathnew.

Dublin county officials had expressed their disappointment at the decision, worried about the exhaustive demands it would make on their players. Yesterday, however, an inspection at Parnell Park showed the pitch to be waterlogged, and so the decision was made to reset the game at the same venue for 2 p.m. tomorrow.

As a result, the Leinster Council agreed the quarter-final with Rathnew would be rescheduled for tomorrow week, November 24th, at Aughrim. It also means one of the Leinster semi-finals, set for the same day, has also been put back a week, to December 1st.

The Leinster Council have also announced that pitch inspections will be held at noon today in Portlaoise (club hurling championship, Birr against St Mullins), at Wexford Park (club hurling championship, Young Irelands versus Rathnure) and in Carlow (club football championship, Rathvilly against Dunshaughlin) to decide if those games scheduled for tomorrow can go ahead.

Tomorrow's All-Ireland Intermediate Championship camogie final between Antrim and Cork scheduled for Glenalbyn has already been postponed.

• The bad weather has hit the Eircom National League, with waterlogged pitches putting paid to all four of last night's Premier League matches: Shelbourne against Derry City scheduled for Tolka Park, St Patrick's Athletic against UCD, Bray Wanderers versus Shamrock Rovers, and the Drogheda United clash.

The Drogheda United and Bohemians game will be played in Drogheda tomorrow at 3 p.m., with the Bray Wanderers-Shamrock Rovers game also moved to tomorrow at 3.15 p.m. The other two games have been provisionally reset for Monday.

• Elsewhere, today's race meeting at Punchestown is off, following an inspection yesterday morning. The Morgiana Hurdle, scheduled for Punchestown, which was due to feature another duel between Limestone Lad and Liss A Paoraigh, has been moved to tomorrow's meeting in Navan.

Today's meeting at Uttoxeter in England is set to go ahead, although there will be an early morning inspection to double-check the conditions.

• Rugby fixtures have mostly survived the bad weather, with tomorrow's international between Ireland and Fiji at Lansdowne Road to go ahead as planned at 3 p.m. All of this afternoon's AIL Division One matches are also so far unaffected, although there have been some cancellations in other divisions.

Today's Division Three match between Skerries and Clonakilty has been called off, and also the following Junior Four League matches: Blackrock against St Mary's, Monkstown versus Old Wesley, Malahide and AIB, and TCD against Unidare.

All further cancellations will be announced on www.LeinsterRugby.ie

OFF

Gaelic Games: Leinster club quarter-final, Rathnew v Dublin champions.

Racing: Punchestown meeting

Rugby: AIL Division three, Skerries v Clonakility

Camogie: All-Ireland Intermediate final, Antrim v Cork

ON

Rugby: Ireland v Fiji, Lansdowne Road/AIL Division One matches.

Gaelic Games: Dublin football final, UCD v St Vincent's.