Looking back to its beginnings in 2009 four times the blog has reported on cricket played in England in March and five times in April, the latest date being Tuesday 6th April 2010 when under the heading 'First Match' Brian Sanderson described a game played at Headingley in front of a crowd that barely touched double figures and featured two sides of Yorkshire players. Brian reported a fine day but with a cold breeze which made watching 'uncomfortable. Eight years on that record has been smashed and it looks as though it could be Friday, the 20th before Tony and I see any cricket. If the forecast is to be believed temperatures tomorrow afternoon and Thursday should make even Headingley fit for play before Notts new captain, Steven Mullaney almost certainly exercises his prerogative and invites Yorkshire to bat.
Tony plans to be at Headingley while I will travel to Riverside where Kent, fresh from a mauling at the hands of Gloucestershire will be the visitors. On Saturday we will swap places, a day on which a few weeks ago our April fixture list anticipated that most league cricket would start. The impact of the weather has been such that of the leagues we traditionally cover a majority will not now hear the call of play until April 28th. Just this morning I received an email from the secretary of Cockerton CC with the news that the Darlington and District League has postponed this week's fixtures. It is probably safe to assume there
will be no more changes although the Halifax League, which has come out firmly against any delay, are still allowing clubs who fear their grounds may not be fit to report to the league by 10:00 tonight.
After what Tony described in a March posting as a 'winter of discontent' the last thing the beleaguered county championship was a rain affected start which of cause washed out the whole four days at Headingley. Just today an article on cricinfo talks of an ECB working party which will consider the introduction of a 'FA Cup style KO competition and the restructuring of the championship into a conference system'. Under the chairmanship of Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan the working party will 'discuss options for the domestic season once the new T20 starts in 2020'. The only certainty seems to be that Messrs Graves, Harrison and Strauss are determined to get their way and introduce this new competition. Boo.
Finally, just to show how late spring is this year these two photographs were taken outside my house, the one on the right a year ago today, the one on the left yesterday.
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