CHESTER’S scheduled League Challenge Cup second round tie tonight at Newcastle Town has been postponed.

The rearranged cup clash has become the latest casualty of the freezing conditions which saw every scheduled weekend fixture in the Evostik League Division One North programme wiped out.

The original tie at Newcastle had to be postponed earlier this month because the Chester team bus was unable to complete the journey to the Lyme Valley Stadium due to being stranded on the motorway in congested traffic because of an accident.

And Chester’s general secretary, Pat Cluskey, suggested that tonight’s latest setback could trigger further problems in trying to rearrange matches in favour of cup games.

He said: “Common sense would now suggest that the Newcastle Town cup tie will be rearranged for next Tuesday, but that would then probably mean we would have to reschedule our home league match next Wednesday against Woodley Sports, as well as the League Challenge Cup third round tie at Chasetown.”

Cluskey confirmed that Chester had already received a directive from the Evostik League to rearrange last Saturday’s postponed home match against Durham City to Monday, December 27.

He added: “The league has already told us that we will now be playing Durham City on Monday, December 27, instead of our original opponents, AFC Fylde.

“It was always going to be a struggle to rearrange the Durham fixture because we haven’t any available Saturdays remaining in our fixture list, but we’re hoping we can get a bumper crowd for our festive home game against Durham, particularly as there are no Premier League football matches scheduled to be played on that day.

“AFC Fylde, who we were due to face on December 27, will now face us in January, but we are still awaiting confirmation that we can play them at Chester, on Wednesday, January 12.”

- Altrincham have signed former Chester City striker Mark Beesley on loan until January 3, from Conference Premier league rivals Fleetwood Town.

Beesley began his career at Preston North End before spending three and a half seasons at Chester.

He joined Hereford United in December 2003 and made 15 appearances for the Bulls before moving to Forest Green Rovers in June 2004, returning to the north west for a loan spell with Lancaster City in August 2004.

He resumed his career with Forest Green before signing for Cambridge United in January 2008 for a five-figure fee.

Beesley had loan spells at Chester and AFC Telford last year before joining Fleetwood in July 2010, but was on loan at York City until new manager Gary Mills cut the period short to November 1 when he took over.