caleb777 wrote:I dont think ive ever seen a season so disrupted by the rain!
Can anyone shed some light on the interesting situation that occurred at Lobethal yesterday in the A grade? Rather spicy post on the Lobethal FB page and ensuing discussion. Having played at Lobethal in the rain i know it can be a tad slippery however it did rain all day on that particular day.
From bits and pieces ive heard it sounded like the start was delayed by about an hour. Match then started when deemed safe to do so. It started raining again shortly after the start making the mats slippery for the bowlers . I'm guessing at that point the bowlers may have brought it to the attention of the umpire which is fair enough. I assume the umpire then made the decision to halt play until conditions improved? Fair enough.
Now at that point looking at the radar , it would suggest that the rain wouldn't hang around for long and play should have been able to resume once cleared and mats were dry enough.
From what i can gather, after waiting for 10 - 15 mins the Lobey Captain went up to the Creek Captain and basically suggested lets call it a day, shook hands and that was it.
With a Panel umpire there i would have thought that it was their decision when the game could be called off but under the circumstances if both captains agreed why would you enforce them to stay around and play ?
Im guessing this would have been between 2.00 and 2.30 which is very early to call it. Obviously not long after the rain stopped and in hindsight the game could have gone ahead but it had already been called off.
All very weird by the sounds of it

Whats more weird is of reports so far this season of some games being played in atrociously wet conditions including some with panel umpires in charge ! Thats the concern, the MASSIVE variation in the thoughts of umpires as to what conditions are appropriate to play in and what is not.
It has to be far more consistent to be fair for all teams.