Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Lights go out on Spitfires’ hopes of semi-final spot
James Tredwell bemoaned the ‘freakish’ nature of the YB40 defeat to Warwickshire which ended any slim hopes Kent had of making the semi-finals.
A power failure led to a floodlight flicking out shortly before 9pm leaving the umpires no choice but to abandon the game on safety grounds after discussions with the two teams with Warwickshire taking the win via DuckworthLewis.
Tredwell admitted Kent were keen to play-on to try and secure the victory which would have taken their last-four chances to the finalday clash with Notts at Canterbury next Monday but could not persuade his opposite number Jim Troughton to return to the field. He said: “It was pretty dark out there. You have got to consider everyone’s safety out in the middle and that was the decision that was come to. Conditions weren’t fit. It would be wrong of us to criticise Warwickshire because if we were in the same scenario we would be doing exactly the same thing.”
He added: “It’s unfortunate. It could have been a decent end to a decent game of cricket.
“It’s a shame. You never want those sorts of things to happen but it’s one of those things you can’t control.
“With 15 overs left we had a pretty good chance of winning the game, certainly with Stevo there at the wicket.
“It’s a real shame but it would be wrong for us to get too upset because it was something we can’t control. It was a freakish thing that happened and unfortunately it’s not gone in our favour.
“In a weird sort of way it would have been nicer if we’d lost the game having played the whole game.”
Fans with tickets from Thursday’s game can use them to gain entrance to one day of the Canterbury Cricket Week LV= County Championship Division 2 clash with Gloucestershire which started at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, yesterday (Wednesday).