White Rose bedraggled but still blooming

By Andrew Hignell

The summer of 2012 is finally over – well, at least it is from a meteorological point of view, with September 1 marking the start of autumn. For the weather-beaten cricketers of England and Wales, however, the new month sees the end of the domestic season and in particular the outcome of the County Championship, with the title winners to be identified and promotion and relegation battles also being fought out during the course of the next fortnight.

That Yorkshire are still in with a chance of winning the Division Two title, and clinching promotion back into the top flight, is nothing short of miraculous after record-breaking levels of weather-interruption which has seen 137.75 hours of play lost in their fourteen matches so far.
 
This tops the previous highest of recent times – 124.25 by Worcestershire in 2007 - and prompted one wag to remark that they should now be known as the Wet Rose rather than the White Rose!

The Tykes are not alone in topping the hundred hours lost mark, as six other counties have also suffered severe disruption in their County Championship campaigns. These are: Essex (112.25), Gloucestershire (112.25), Hampshire (106), Durham (104), Glamorgan (102.50) and Lancashire (102).

There has never been, under the current two-divisional structure of sixteen games, instances of so many counties losing more than a hundred hours of play. The years 2000, 2004 and 2007 each had three teams having over a hundred hours of play lost, with the latter year also containing the worst in recent times when Worcestershire had to stage matches away from their flooded base at New Road.
 
At least that scenario has been avoided in 2012, but if the weather in the next two weeks takes a turn for the worse, other counties could yet join this rather unwanted hundred club.

*Andrew Hignell is Glamorgan Cricket's official scorer



Date: 03/09/2012 11:06:28 by Andrew Hignell
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