Michael Baggaley: Chiles's bravura performance raises roof in rain-hit Warsaw

J UST one question remains from England's soggy mid-week trip to Poland: Was this Adrian Chiles's finest hour?

It's a "yes" from me.

The West Brom fan isn't everyone's cup of tea, but his time-filling from the ITV studio as England's game was washed out on Tuesday made for more entertainment than the following day when they actually got the match on.

Some presenters would have fallen apart. Chiles held it together, keeping pundits Gareth Southgate, Lee Dixon and an increasingly agitated Roy Keane in a tight-knit unit, even as it became obvious the match was off.

Mind you, forget the game. Nothing Wayne Rooney did could compare with the moment when Chiles asked: "When does heavy rain become a downpour? Roy?"

Keane's response was to bow his head and pinch the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger in the classic pose of a man trying REALLY hard not to lose his temper.

Occasionally we'd also get shots from behind the scenes at the stadium, revealing FA officials frantically ensuring their manager was under no circumstances pictured with an umbrella.

Terrific stuff, although no consolation, of course, to the fans who had made it to Poland, so couldn't even watch the ITV coverage to wile away the downpour.

The postponement must have been a particular surprise to those Stoke fans who were tuning in hoping to see Ryan Shawcross win his first England cap.

The faithful are just not used to this at the Brit. After all, only one game has been lost to the conditions since the stadium opened in 1997.

Since you asked, that was West Brom at home, which was postponed in March 2004 because of high winds.

Mind you, getting last season's Sunderland game on was a minor miracle.

Groundsman Andy Jackson and his staff did an amazing job. However, heavy snowfall during the game meant getting as far as Cliffe Vale on the A500 involved the most intrepid winter journey since Eddie the Eagle wiped the snow from his glasses and pushed himself down the slope at Calgary.

We whippersnappers can count ourselves lucky we weren't trying to watch football 50 years ago when the season was in the icy grip of Britain's "Big Freeze".

It was so bad that the third round of the FA Cup, which began on January 5, 1963, was not completed until March 11.

Stoke's tie with Leeds United was postponed 12 times, as was Port Vale's against Gillingham.

Football hadn't seen anything like it since the 1946/47 season when more than 100 league matches were postponed.

That season had to be extended, which meant Stoke City's attempt to become champions of England didn't end until June 14.

The Potters, lest anyone needs reminding, lost that final game at Sheffield United when a win would have given them the title on goal difference from Liverpool.

Stoke hadn't helped themselves by selling Stanley Matthews to Blackpool a month before the end of the season. However, many believe Liverpool were always going to have the greater staying power over the extended campaign.

This was because they had spent pre-season in the United States building themselves up on meals of steak and orange juice, luxuries which were rarely seen in post-war Britain because of rationing.

Let's not overlook the amazing power of the oatcake, but no wonder Liverpool had that bit of extra stamina.

Damn that extended season! In fact, I contend that Stoke usually come of worse when the weather turns nasty.

You want more evidence? I give you three words. Dave. Regis. Puddle.

The Stoke striker thought he'd scored in that Vale Park monsoon in November 1992. Instead the ball got stuck in the mud, Vale won 3-1 and the Valiants backroom staff recreated the moment years later with a "Phoenix From The Flames" video in which the puddle was movingly played by a bucket.

This was just the latest FA Cup indignity for the Potters, who were beating Oldham 2-0 in the 1979 third round at the Victoria Ground when the game was called off because of a frozen pitch. You've guessed it, they lost the re-arranged game.

Don't get me wrong, Vale fans have suffered too, not least when they completely wasted their admission money for a League Cup tie at Northampton Town in September 1987.

The fog was so bad that Northampton fans at the far end of the ground chanted "Who's scored?" after their side took the lead.

It was the sort of pea-souper depicted in films of late-Victorian London, only instead of Jack the Ripper emerging from the gloom the Vale defence faced Trevor Morley.

The striker scored a hat-trick that night as the Valiants crashed 4-0.

So, a long and slow drive home for the Vale fans, although not as long as the journey for the intrepid Stokies who followed their team to Reggiana for an Anglo-Italian Cup tie in 1995.

A coachload of Stokies had driven overnight through the Alps and right down to the southern tip of Italy to get there, only to discover the game had been called off because of snow.

At least they didn't have Roy Keane for company.