da pixbet： Glamorgan are the “raining champions” of the 2001 season, havinglost 103.50 hours in first-class matches – equivalent to a quarter of all playing time in the County Championship this year
Andrew Hignell16-Sep-2001Glamorgan are the “raining champions” of the 2001 season, havinglost 103.50 hours in first-class matches – equivalent to a quarter of all playing time in the County Championship this year.Lancashire, who lost 11 entire days of Championship cricket at Old Trafford aresecond, with Warwickshire in third place, a couple of hours ahead of Worcestershire,their West Midlands neighbours, whose ground at New Road was ravaged by floods duringthe winter and spring.County Champions Yorkshire had better luck with the weather, losing just over 56 hours -almost half of Glamorgan`s total – whilst Sussex, who won the Second Division title, lost leasttime of all – a mere 27.50 hours on the sun-kissed south coast.As far as Glamorgan were concerned, just three of their County Championship matchesin 2001 were unaffected by the weather, and ironically all three involved the top two sidesin Division One – against Yorkshire at Swansea, Somerset at Taunton and the return matchwith Yorkshire at Scarborough. In the case of the latter game, heavy rain set in shortly afterthe match ended as Yorkshire secured the county title. It rained for the rest of the day,leaving Welsh supporters to rue the fact that the Glamorgan innings had not lasted foranother five or ten minutes.To lose the equivalent of 1,706 overs was very frustrating for the Glamorgan team,and also their coach Jeff Hammond. “On at least three occasions, we were in a very promisingposition, ” he said, “and at the end of the season, you cannot help but dwell on thesegames and wonder what might have been had the weather not intervened. I would love to havechanged things, and seen a little bit of warm and dry Australian weather over Glamorgan this year!”At least Hammond, who is retiring from coaching and returning to work in the Australian winetrade, will not have to worry about the possibility of losing a significent slice of playingtime next year. But in a competition which only embraces 16 matches, and involves three teamsin each division being relegated and promoted each year, perhaps the E.C.B. should investigatethe way the damp weather appears to hamper the best efforts of some counties.In the world of rugby and football, any games which are postponed or abandoned are automaticallyreplayed. The complexity of the county calendar would not allow this in cricket, but surely itwould be possible to introduce the regulation, currently in operation in Tests in this countryand in domestic cricket in Australia, for play to continue for up to an hour on days where timehas been lost.
Estimated numberof hours lostGlamorgan 103.50Lancashire 100.25Warwickshire 92.00Worcestershire 90.75Surrey 88.00Kent 82.50Derbyshire 73.25Nottinghamshire 71.75Hampshire 68.50Middlesex 68.00Gloucestershire 65.50Durham 64.00Essex 57.75Somerset 57.00Yorkshire 56.75Leicestershire 53.50Northamptonshire 35.50Sussex 27.50
The unofficial data above has been collected during the 2001 season, using the criteria of aminimum of 104 overs being bowled on the first three days, and 96 on the final day. By comparingclose of play scores each day, it has been possible to produce the estimates above.