Rethink needed over wash-outs

THE semi-final line-up for this year’s John Willie Lees Wood Cup was finalised this week – but it took 10 days to get there.

Heywood will host Crompton on Sunday, while Monton and Weaste will entertain Ashton.

Quite rightly, a place in the Wood Cup final is a major aim for every club in the CLL.

A showpiece occasion in front of a big crowd is a huge incentive for the players, but the method of reaching that stage surely needs to be looked at.

The latest round of Wood Cup matches descended into a farce.

No-one is to blame here because the application of existing rules has been adhered to and I witnessed first hand recently the stresses and strains placed on senior CLL officials trying to be fair to all the quarter-finalists.

In suggesting change, or at least a second look at the existing rules, I am not pointing the finger at anyone, least of all those who give up their time for the benefit of local cricket.

But let’s look at the facts.

First-round matches had to be put back to June 22 following a wash-out on the original date of June 1.

Most of those games ended on time – although Werneth had to return to Norden the following night – but the rain returned with a vengeance a week last Sunday for the quarter-finals.

Three of those games started so, under league rules, they had to be continued on subsequent nights.

Unfortunately, if somewhat predictably given this dreadful summer, the weather actually deteriorated, causing further delays until this week.

Heywood’s game against Littleborough, meanwhile, did not get under way on June 22, so the league – showing commendable flexibility – allowed them to play last Sunday.

Fortunately, the sun shone at Crimble and the game was able to be completed, but the downside was the absence of key Heywood and Littleborough players for the CLL colts’ match against the Lancashire County League on the same day. Not surprisingly, a weakened CLL team lost the game.

The three remaining ties, including Crompton v Walsden and Werneth v Monton and Weaste, were completed on Tuesday, but the games involving our two local teams ended in unsatisfactory circumstances.

For obvious reasons, only the 11 players nominated when ties begin can bat and bowl. Substitute fielders are allowed, but that’s as far as it goes.

Given the timespan of these quarter-finals, it was no great shock that both Walsden and Werneth were missing players at the conclusion of these matches.

In Walsden’s case, they were three light and had to concede the match after being reduced to 143 for seven.

Werneth, meanwhile, were missing Franco Lenhardt and while it is long odds-on that they would have lost to Monton even if he had been able to bat, we will never actually know.

Basically, the English weather is the culprit in all this. The Wood Cup was similarly ravaged last year and the same will happen again at some stage in the future.

But what can the league do about it?

I’m afraid I have no blueprint for success, but perhaps the cancellation of matches which have not reached the halfway stage on their original date is a starting point.

I know this would cause other problems, not least trying to find suitable dates on which to stage “replays”, but it would certainly reduce the risk of absent players and unfair conclusions to matches.

And, in any case, does the final really have to take place in early August just because it is traditional?

By all means plan for such a slot when arranging the fixtures at the start of the season, but I would advocate a little more flexibility and if that means a September final and a noon start, then so be it.

Other suggestions I have heard have included the Duckworth Lewis method, bowl-outs and even the toss of a coin.

But speak to any player dreaming of a Wood Cup final appearance and most would say such ways of settling important matches are not acceptable.