Ramrod wrote:Roxy the Rat Girl wrote:After an unforecast overnight downpour of approximately 15mm at Ashbourne and the U16s match being abandoned in the morning as the pitch was too wet and unsafe, Ashbourne, under protest, were forced to bat on a pudding of a pitch you could literally push your finger into. Ashbourne made a valiant 164 chasing 260 with the end result being a good win for Lobethal who have not dropped a match this season. The pitch, which was considered the best of the four wickets, is now extremely damaged and may not be playable for the remainder of the season. It is disappointing that no consideration seemed to be given to the longer term impact play would have on such a wet pitch, not to mention the safety of the players.
Other results?
Not good for Ashbourne after reading your post Roxy. Problem is the umpires in our comp don't have enough you know what to call off the game.So congrats to Lobey by default. Woodside defeated Nairne convincingly by looking the scores. I feel sorry for Langhorne creek next game cause Nairne will not be happy at all. Also I see Wistow got there first win against a disappointing Creek side. What happened Jackpot?
Stuff Nairne! Creeks have more reason to be unhappy.
A terrible performance with the bat the 1st week always had the Creeks behind the 8 ball in this match.
Having said that, 184 would still have been enough for the Creeks to defend had they not inexplicably dropped a handfull of catches.
Wistow showed what can happen if ALL the batsmen in the team are prepared to GUTs it out. They rode their luck and were able to limp and crawl across the line for a deserving win. Creeks quickly took the ascendancy early on Day 2 taking 3/8 off the 1st 9 overs to have Wistow reeling but the Creeks failed to hold a number over relatively simple chances during the afternoon and paid the full price. Wistow still needed 30 with only 2 wickets in hand but held their nerve to get the win. Kinlough with 89 was the backbone for the Wistow Innnings Whilst Golding for the Creeks was brilliant with 4/22 off 24 overs which is amazing figures on the lightning Wistow hill. Youngster Jedd Rothe proved he will be a STAR of the future with 3/34 off 19. Will be interesting what team the Creeks come up with this week against Nairne. Golding generally has it all over the Wistow batsmen so could hold the key if he recovers from his exhausting stint yesterday.
In regards to the wet pitch at Ashbourne.
Without seeing it it's impossible to form a proper opinion of it.
Whether pitches are playable or not when rain affected has always been a bone of contention and always will be.
Umpires cant win what ever decision they make. one team will always be upset.
I suppose the thing is that clubs with turf have no one to blame but themselves if they dont have covers and even more so if they dont put them on. I know its a pain and we at the Creek have been caught out several times over the decades with unforecast rain BUT if your own team is batting as in Ashbournes case, its hard to blame others.
If you havent got covers and it was genuinely too wet to play on, then i have sympathy for you guys.
Thing is with the pitch, whist it is ideal and generally is similar from one week to the next. the very nature of turf pitches is that variances should be expected from week to week due to weather conditions and things may not always be fair. No different to playing on hard wickets with one team may to to bowl with a wet ball whist the other doesnt. or field in 39c heat as against 22c. Thats just the luck of the draw.
From my vast experiences, wet / damp pitches may be tricky and difficult to bat on and teams can rightly feel unlucky to cop those conditions compared to a team that bats on a flat, dry, hard and true pitch but i have to say that i dont consider them dangerous.
The state of the pitch i'd be calling it off would be if batsmen OR bowlers were unable to confidently secure their footing running between wickets or bowling off a full run whilst wearing spikes. I have NO sympathy for players that wear rubbers on turf and complain they cant hold their feet.
Other circumstance as Roxy has mentioned is if irrepairable damage is being done to the pitch.
As a former curator i would say that damage often looks a lot worse than what it is and generally within a few weeks you will hardly notice it.
With Woodsides win over Nairne, it would seem that the 4 may already be set sadly at such an early stage of the season.
Having said that, i feel that at least Ashbourne and Creeks are still capable of upsetting higher ranked opponents to shape the 4. It would be a mild shock to see Wistow win too many more games. No disrespect to them, its just that they dont have the quality but they do try hard which can see you steal a win if the opponent turns up with their C game as the Creeks just did.
Lost the game, lost additional points, bet they feel pretty p@#%ed off. They'll probably play 4 spinners next week.
