by Down the Hill » Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:08 pm
Hey guys, we all play turf cricket because it is "real" cricket but it comes with the baggage of playing on wickets that can be plain crap or wickets affected by weather. Crap wickets are normally the same both weeks so a level playing field, but wet wickets can ruin a fair contest just by a 3 second toss of a coin. At a recent game at Payneham, covers allowed us to get a fair game on week 1 but it still took 10 blokes to get them off very very carefully and even then some major water got spilled onto the pitch surrounds and had to be covered over with soil and clippings before play started. Several games were washed out that week so all good for Payneham for having covers.
But putting covers on, keeping them on, avoiding idiots from tampering with them, getting them off, and drying them before putting them away, is a far bigger task than many of you are giving credit for. Many clubs such as Flinders Uni and most Old Scholar clubs do not curate their own wickets and for OHS and other legal reasons are not allowed access to any mechanical equipment. Friday arvo is the final prep these wickets get. Yes not ideal but many of these wickets and grounds are the best going around when no wet weather so that is the trade off.
The ATCA spans North-South almost 70km from Reynella to Penfield and about 20km East-West and weather can change a hell of alot over that distance. SACA didn't get called off 2 weeks ago yet only 1 A grade game got a start and the silly Southern Dist. skipper won the toss and batted and they were duly bowled out for 71. They ended up losing outright on Saturday.
Covers may only cause more issues for clubs because not every club will always be in a position to get them on before rain hits and in some case pitches may not get the best preparation due to covers being on in the days leading up and restricting the curator's ability to get on the wicket. This will just cause further bickering and "investigations" as to why or how a wicket was unplayable.
I think we all go into a season realising that we are likley to miss at least 2 or 3 of the 20/21 Saturday's of the minor round and these days are often the best days of the year where guys assemble at their club or pub and make a day of it.
Looking at alot of the scores from Saturday, there were plenty of close games with guys making runs and taking wickets on what would have mostly been pretty good wickets. I know the wicket at Flinders Uni was an absolute belter, so is anyone still complaining we got called off the Saturday before.