Thousands of Oxford Aunt Sally players are facing disappointment after vital match results failed to arrive in the post.

Score cards for 140 teams which take part in the Greene King (Oxford) Aunt Sally league, which are usually sent to the league's secretary Andrew Beal, in Sandy Lane, Blackbird Leys, did not arrive last week.

The results were due to be published in today's (Wednesday, August 4) Oxford Mail to keep teams and individual players informed of their positions.

Mr Beal said without last week's results, it would be difficult to draw up a league table at the end of the season to award prizes.

He was expecting about 50 result cards to arrive as usual on Friday. Twelve arrived on Saturday, three on Monday and two yesterday.

Mr Beal complained to Royal Mail's office in Ledgers Close, Littlemore, Oxford, and said he was told a temporary postman employed on Friday had either delivered the mail to the wrong houses or dumped the post. Mr Beal was told nothing could be done.

Royal Mail spokesman Dan Panes confirmed a temporary postman was working on Friday, but said it was too early for Royal Mail to be blamed. In March, the Oxford Mail reported how post destined for Sandy Lane residents was found dumped in Sandford Lock.

Mr Beal, said: "All of the efforts of 2,000 Aunt Sally players in Oxford for the past 12 weeks have been ruined.

"Not everyone keeps a record of the scores and most teams don't count up individual scores so there is no way of tallying up scores for the league table.

"I had two cheques go missing in the post a few weeks ago. The thing that gets me is that all Royal Mail do is shrug their shoulders, send out a book of stamps and print off the same letter signed by some robot, that doesn't mean anything.

"It's not good enough. I am very annoyed. It has become virtually impossible to run the league now.

"The players that live close by don't even bother sending the results in now, they hand deliver them, it's got that bad."

Mr Panes said: "At this stage it's difficult to say exactly where any delays have occurred, but we will be investigating."