LIAM DURKIN
CRICKET
LVDCL
By LIAM DURKIN
IF this cricket-loving writer can be facetious for a moment – some global warming would be nice.
The worst possible hat-trick was achieved on Saturday, as all but one game in the Latrobe Valley and District Cricket League was washed out yet again.
Players and officials had been hoping for a start, and were given a ‘play where you can’ directive from the LVDCL.
However, by 11am Saturday, most grounds were unfit to play, as rain-soaked outfields had players sinking into the surface.
And that meant no cricket for the third weekend in a row.
The result had some wondering if there had ever been a wetter start to a cricket season.
Looking back, the 2010/11 season certainly stands out as the wettest in recent memory. Amazingly, four of the first five rounds that season were abandoned.
The Central Gippsland Cricket Association (as the LVDCL was known back then) played the Round 1 matches in early January.
A couple of years later, there was back-to-back rounds washed out, as there was a few years ago in late October, early November 2019.
Other than that, in the last decade or so, there has only been around one washout in the month of October – a reality most local cricketers accept.
As wet as this cricket season has been, Trafalgar Cricket Club games record holder, John Asmussen, believes there was one season many moons ago when the first five weeks were washed out.
OF the five abandoned games, there was one that went ahead, between Churchill and JeeralangBoolarra at George Cain Oval.
Churchill elected to bowl upon winning the toss, and soon had the Panthers in all sorts of trouble.
A wicket off the very first ball of the game (technically the season) set the tone for what was to follow.
Making full use of the conditions, the Cobras ruthlessly denied Jeeralang-Boolarra, as they fell to 3/4 in the fourth over, and before too long, 5/16, then 6/23 and 7/29.
With little they could do, the Panthers eventually scrambled to a total of 53.
Their situation was probably summed up by the fact seven wickets were either bowled or lbw.
English recruit Kian Farnworth may have felt at home under the cloud cover, and he took 3/7.
John Keighran bobbed up with 2/8, before going on to make 31 off 20 balls to push Churchill over the line with a bonus point.
Shan De Silva took 2/7 for Jeeralang-Boolarra.
ACROSS the other four senior grades, there was only one other completed match, which was in B Grade between Traralgon West and Churchill at Jack Canavan Oval.
The match between Centrals and Morwell in Premier B featured one over completed at St Paul’s, Traralgon, before it was abandoned.
LVDCL Round 4 fixture: JeeralangBoolarra v Mirboo North (at Boolarra), Moe v Churchill (at Ted Summerton), Willow Grove v Trafalgar (at Willow Grove), Raiders v Latrobe (at Yinnar), Traralgon v Centrals (at Jack Canavan), CATS v Morwell (at Yallourn North).
