Time for cricket - go away rain!

This weekend should have seen the start of the new cricket season. Unfortunately, as alluded to in previous blogs and social media posts, this winter and spring have been particularly wet. The pitch was mostly underwater from the week prior to Christmas through to the week before Easter.

We repeatedly tried to tackle the problem by pumping water off the pitch, but the incessant rain just kept topping it up again. By Easter we thought we'd cracked it, the pitch was clear and could start to dry - but then came the return of the Beast from the East! Another round of pumping saw the pitch cleared again just before the surprise hot spell - all 4 days of it - and hopes were high that perhaps we could be ready for the first game. Alas, the dry spell broke after just those four days and ever since it has been showers and rain again.

So the upshot is that the pitch is currently unplayable. The first game against Haworth 2nds had to be called off, as did the junior game against Steeton on Thursday. We are still at the mercy of the weather - the odd dry day or two is of little use to us, we need a long sustained period of dry sunny weather to dry the pitch and encourage the grass to grow.

The forecast for the coming week is for more unsettled and cold weather (possibly even frost/sleet) so that's not looking good. It has to be considered that next week's games - Azeems CC midweek league and Eldwick & Gilstead's Saturday fixtures may be unplayable too.

At some point spring will arrive properly, and we will be striving to get the season underway as soon as possible. Please bare with us - we will play cricket eventually!