That was on Saturday as Romford won 1-0 despite taking something of a battering. Then, as games fell by the wayside on Tuesday, I found myself dashing to VCD again, this time as they faced Leyton. The programme for the game was originally issued for the postponed match on December 29 and there was an up-to-date insert. Keeper Elliott Justham was the only player in Leyton's original 1-11 who appeared in the updated one, and not one of the players on that updated list actually lined up. That made 31 players in all, since the final starting 11 included Danny Francis who had been in the Dec 27 team. I suppose that's what happens when you reach your fourth manager of the season.

Leyton also took a battering but they were sharp up front and led 3-1 at half-time before going down 4-3. They had a chatty and cheerful Lithuanian goalkeeper called, they thought, Alvudas Ceponis. He wasn't very good, to be honest, but pulled off one blinding save to deny Aaron Firth a hat-trick. I was glad to see Firth acknowledge his opponent with the traditional sporting slap on the bum, and hoped the gesture means the same in Lithuania.

Canvey had also been enjoyable; a 4-1 away win for Aveley who had been worried a week earlier when they were only one point above the relegation zone and were now pretty much terrified to be only five points off the play-offs. Intriguing feature of this game was a penalty conceded by Tony Russell, one of my daughter's Facebook connections. I was standing next to the Aveley bench at the time and we all agreed that it was an obvious penalty. Strangely enough, Canvey and Aveley folk on the opposite side of the pitch thought it was a comic decision. That's angles for you. Who'd be a ref?

While Route 66 progress was otherwise frustrated, there were still matches to watch. On the Monday after the Canvey game I saw their neighbours Concord steal a last-kick 2-1 win at Ilford, a game remarkable for an incident in which, to the entire approval of the ref, two Concord players burst through on the left to threaten the Ilford goal. The odd aspect of this was that they each had a ball at their feet. One eventually pulled up, bemused, the other was tackled, but there was no whistle. Could they have scored two goals at once?

The following night, with almost everything rained off, I managed to find some action at Boreham Wood where an own goal gave the hosts a 2-1 win over Hendon in remarkably good conditions.

All that was left on Wednesday was a trip to the distinctly chilly East London Stadium, where senior football newcomers Bethnal Green United beat Barkingside 2-1 in the Essex Senior League Cup. A young acquaintance of mine in the BGU squad was delighted to have been 'borrowed' by Concord for a recent League Cup tie against Billericay, which they won, and was hoping to get the call for the next round. I had to break the news to him that he, and a couple of others, had not been properly registered and there would be no next round.

Thursday took me to Sittingbourne after the pitch passed a 4pm inspection, but constant rain after that halted proceedings in the 16th minute.

On Monday and Wednesday of this week the rain beat me, though I had a rare Wednesday night ice hockey fixture at Romford for consolation, and last night I spent three miserable hours on the North Circular expecting them to be wasted, only to find Kingstonian's pitch in immaculate condition. The 3-3 draw with Wealdstone was as good a game as I have seen all season.

Once again, for the third time this season, I have timetabled the rest of my Route 66 visits. No doubt, as it has done on the two previous occasions I've made my plans, that will trigger another fortnight of postponements.

I know other people have done all 66 clubs in a season; I wonder, though, whether anybody has seen 100 Ryman League games in a season. At the moment I reckon I could do 102 if I set my mind to it, and there are bound to be more games on so-far free dates. I think I may be going mad.