Let it snow! The blizzard years when you still played footy - and the one year when you just couldn't

But you could not even do that in the winter of 1962-1963 which was one of the coldest on record.

Every game was called off for weeks

When it came to sport, the snow was so deep that no games were possible.

For many weeks, football matches suffered.

Several ties in the 1962-63 FA Cup were rescheduled 10 times or more, to the point that the fifth and sixth rounds originally scheduled for February 16 and March 9, were finally played on March 16 and March 30.

A board known as the Pools Panel was set up so that the results of postponed matches could be decided for the purpose of the football pool results.

Both codes of rugby, union and league, suffered much the same fate.

The league season was extended by four weeks

All this occurred, of course, in the days before under-soil heating became widespread.

When the thaw arrived, a huge backlog of fixtures had to be hastily dealt with.

The Football League season was extended by four weeks, from its original finishing point of April 27, with the final league fixtures taking place one day before the rescheduled FA Cup Final.

But 1963 wasn’t the only year when winter did its worst to stop play.

Have a look at these South Shields footballers out for a practice run in the snow of January 1956.

Playing through a blizzard

Or these hardy souls having a midfield battle against the opposition and the snow in 1970, in a match between South Shields and Jarrow.

A blizzard was just getting under way when our photographer got this undated photo during the South Shields v Sunderland boys over 16 game for the Lambton Cup at Cleadon Recreation Ground.

And who remembers the days when you tackled frost and snow by putting straw on the pitch.

Share your memories of snowy days on the pitch by emailing [email protected]