Downpours, snow and frozen pitches hit fixtures nationwide

The heavy rain forced several football matches to be postponed and the abandonment of three race meetings. Two Premiership games in London – Fulham's against West Bromwich Albion at Loftus Road and Charlton Athletic v West Ham United at The Valley – were the most high-profile games to be called off after failing pitch inspections.

Charlton's game was called off an hour before kick-off. "The last thing I wanted to do was call the game off, and I've given it every chance," the referee, Eddie Wolstenholme, said.

The Charlton manager, Alan Curbishley, said: "It was a difficult decision for the referee and his problem was that it just would not stop raining. If it had stopped then I think the chances are that the game would have gone ahead, but then it threw it down just as the ref was making his decision."

Last night's Premiership match between Newcastle and Liverpool did go ahead after two inspections. The pitch at the Gallowgate end of the stadium remained covered as groundstaff worked in an attempt to persuade the official to give the go-ahead.

Reading's First Division match against Leicester was abandoned at half-time because of heavy rain with the score at 0-0 and two other games in the First Division were postponed, plus Brentford v Colchester in the Second Division and six matches in the Third Division.

In Scotland, two First Division matches were called off – Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Ross County because of a frozen pitch and Alloa v Falkirk due to a waterlogged pitch. Snow forced the postponement of the Second Division match between Hamilton and Berwick.

The rain continues to affect racing's National Hunt programme with three of yesterday's five scheduled cards washed out but today's meeting at Ayr looks set to survive the deluge. Clerk of the course Chris Kennedy said: "We had four millimetres of rain overnight and we are soft. It has rained a little bit this morning but it is easing off so at the moment we are hopeful. Some more rain is forecast but we only had four millimetres overnight so we could take a drop more yet."

Today's other jumps fixture at Folkestone was called off on New Year's Eve.

Officials at Haydock are optimistic that Saturday's meeting will go ahead as planned. Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "We've had 10 millimetres to nine o'clock this morning and a bit since then. There is more about but not enough, I think, to worry us. We are heavy but we should be all right."

However, the outlook at Newcastle is not so good and there will be an inspection tomorrow morning to determine prospects for Saturday's meeting.