Rain washes out openers
After waiting months for the lockdown to ease amid the Coronavirus pandemic in what has largely been fantastic weather, cricketers around the country were excited by the news of being able to start playing competitively again a couple of weeks ago.
Gearing up for the season’s start in the local leagues, it proved typical that Saturday brought some of the worst weather in recent months, forcing very little cricket to be played for a different reason than in recent times.
In the West of England Premier League, the Bath derby survived 12 overs. After Bath 2nd chose to bat, wicket-keeper opener Ben Ackland was caught out by Paul Muchall off the bowling of Paul Ford at 8-1 before fellow opener Sam Young followed for a duck after a Muchall delivery fell into the hands of Sam Mount.
Ashur Morrison and Thomas Hankins began to steady the ship and moved Bath 2nd onto 44 before Hankins was bowled by Joe Prescott.
Morrison and captain James Arney were able to make it 53-3 before the weather came forced the abandonment.
While Keynsham’s tie at Midsomer Norton was abandoned without a ball being bowled, Lansdown were able to put Frome into bat for just over five overs.
Lansdown made the perfect start after Josh Smith trapped opener Scott Lewis lbw with the first ball before Tim Wyatt bowled Robin Lett to make it 9-2. Frome managed to limp to 13 before play had to be stopped after just 5.4 overs.
In Group E, Marshfield also lost their tie against Burbage & Easton Royal without a ball being bowled, while Corsham managed six overs in their trip to Swindon. During those six overs, the visitors had began quite brightly, scoring 22 with only the loss of wicket-keeper opener Charley Reed for eight. Corsham’s second side were unable to manage any play at home to Warminster in Group I.
With hopes for a better weekend this time around, the Bristol & District League and North Somerset League are looking to start their campaigns on Saturday alongside the next round of WEPL, Somerset and Wiltshire League fixtures. and