As noted earlier in this thread, that is exactly the moral I've learned. Wikipedia has no tolerance for works in progress.
Up to a point, Lord Copper. You can work up an article in your sandbox or user space, but once it goes into the main article space it really ought to be at least a decent stub. Lots of poeple patrol recent changes and newly created articles looking for junk, a lot of it gets nominated for deletion, and most of that, goes. Some gets fixed up, some gets userfied (which is what I do with most autobiographies nominated for speedy deletion). But in the end what is in the main article space *is* Wikipedia, and you don't publish half a sentence and a "back in ten" notice in a paper encyclopaedia. So you must concede, I think, that there is at least some right on their side. And after all, there's nothing stopping you from simply adding it again.
If you need access to the deleted content there are plenty of admins who will help you out.
Guy [JzG]