The New Season Starts Here (oh no it doesn't)

Saturday should have been the start of the new season. The long summer should have stretched out ahead with every weekend a carnival of cricket, days basking in the sun, meeting old friends and rivals, and enjoying one another's company. But for now it's anybody's guess when - or even if - the 2020 season will begin.

In the rather lengthy time since my last post, rather a lot has happened to our little club.

We held our AGM and awards were presented to Gully (batting) and Zain (bowling), with a special award to our friend Bren for all his help with the drainage digging and general support over the last few years.

We received communication regarding a former player via his son, this player(Ernest Edwin Helliwell) turned out for the club in the 1920s. His son Jim provided some background to his father and has sent us two medals he won for being part of the West Bradford Cricket League winning side in 1921 & 1922. We plan to mount these and display them in the clubhouse in honour of Ernest and as a link to our long history.

As I alluded to last time, the weather was wet then and it got wetter still. For the first time since the floods of 2015, the river topped the bank and the pitch once more became part of the river itself. Throughout February, the pitch was mostly underwater - on those rare occasions when it managed to not rain for two straight days, the drains worked wonders, but the rains quickly returned. Submerged for almost a month naturally damaged the pitch - particularly the lower end of the square. Work has been underway since early March to repair and reseed it. Amazingly, after the wettest February on record, March was the driest in over 60 years so we would have been able to host the opening game after all had it happened.

Then there was this virus you've probably heard about. Clearly all sport (and socialising/working/living in general) has been put on hold until further notice and cricket is no different. We have been granted permission - indeed the ECB strongly recommended - to continue preparing the pitch and maintaining it. Given the size of a cricket pitch, social distancing isn't particularly difficult. So the grass is still being cut, the pitch rolled, the square prepped. In addition, we're using the extra time before the season to extend the drainage to encompass the whole pitch - bringing forward phase 3 planned for next winter to now when it's somewhat warmer.

So as things stand, we don't know when there will be any cricket. We don't know when we'll all be able to meet up again. We don't know what restrictions will be in place should we be allowed to start (playing behind closed doors? Would we notice the difference?) But we do know that we will return eventually - the club survived two World Wars after all - so until then, keep smiling.