LIAM DURKIN
CRICKET
LVDCL
By LIAM DURKIN
ANOTHER cricket-less weekend has left this writer feeling a bit like Eminem when he said: “I don’t have any lines to go right here”.
More wet weather meant the Latrobe Valley and District Cricket League was abandoned for
the fourth consecutive week.
Yes, fourth consecutive week.
A decision to abandon Round 4 was made on Friday morning after a review of ground
conditions.
The result leaves season 2022/23 in the unwanted category of being the wettest start to
a season in more than a decade.
While season 2010/11 featured four of the first five rounds washed out, it did not suffer
four consecutive abandonments. The month of October has now officially become a write-off, and (discounting World War 2 and last season’s COVID restrictions) you would have to go back 100 years to find a time when there was no cricket during the 10th month of the year.
Morwell Cricket Club did not bowl a ball until the second week of November in season 1922/23. The then Trafalgar and District Cricket Association did not schedule Round 1 until November 11.
Some further anomalies have also crept up as a result of the wet start. Willow Grove still haven’t officially got onto the park as an A Grade outfit.
The bizarre start to the season also means some players may already be on the cusp of finals qualification without actually playing a game.
Under LVDCL rules, a player must appear five times during the home-and-away season to qualify for finals – and washouts count as an appearance.
There is scope for this rule to be manipulated by naming players in washouts, in full knowledge they were never going to play.
Granted it is unlikely anyone would be that desperate to qualify someone this early in the
season, it would be well within the rules.
Taking a bit of an obscure look there, but it could happen…
LVDCL Round 5 fixture: Morwell v Latrobe (at Keegan St), Trafalgar v JeeralangBoolarra (at Trafalgar Rec), Moe v CATS (at Ted Summerton Reserve), Mirboo North v Centrals (at Mirboo North Turf), Churchill v Raiders (at George Cain), Willow Grove v Traralgon West (at Willow Grove Rec).
