Dear All...
Please find enclosed an email from Karl Williams relating to rain affected matches and how to deal with them. Apparently, this was raised at the Executive Meeting last Thursday and Karl has put together this email to answer the query. The rain umpires are all in the rule book and on our website https://www.derbyshireandcheshirecricket.co.uk/.
I have also received a couple of queries relating to contacts for other clubs captains and officials. We decided a couple of years ago to ensure the history of the league and our contacts are all kept on the above website as it is much easier to update than the rule books. All contacts are on https://www.derbyshireandcheshirecricket.co.uk/.
Dear All
At the League Executive Meeting last Thursday a question was raised regarding what steps could be taken by clubs if the poor weather continues and a club believes their ground will not be fit to stage a match well in advance of 4th May or for that matter in subsequent weeks.
As you know we have the panel of umpires who will attend grounds to consider its fitness to stage a match ("the Rain Panel") and I thought it would be useful to simply clarify the current procedure:
1) If a home club thinks their ground is not fit then their designated rain panel umpire should be called and asked to inspect the ground.
2) The Rain Panel umpire does not have the authority to call off a match but merely to give an indication if a ground will be fit or not.
3) If the Rain Panel umpire does not think the ground will be fit to stage a match then it is incumbent for the home club to call the captain of the away side to ask if they agree with the opinion of the Rain Panel umpire and the match is abandoned or if they wish to travel.
4) If the captain of the away side agrees with the opinion of the Rain Panel umpire and the match is abandoned then the home club must call the appointed umpires to the match to confirm the abandonment. Play Cricket must be updated accordingly.
5) If the captain of the away side does not wish to accept the opinion of the Rain Panel umpire then both sides must be in attendance to play the match and the appointed umpires to the fixture will decide (as sole arbiters) if the match should be played or not.
The above process is very much designed for an inspection by the Rain Panel umpire on either a Friday evening or Saturday morning.
The question on Thursday was what would be the process if it became clear early in the week that a ground may not be fit to stage a match on a Saturday. In that situation I advised that the home captain should contact the away captain to see if he wishes to inspect the ground. If both captains agree there is no prospect of the ground being fit to stage a match then the appointed umpires must be advised of the abandonment and Play Cricket updated. If the away captain does not agree in the early abandonment of the fixture then the above process could be followed on the Saturday morning or simply both teams attend the fixture and the appointed umpires will decide if the fixture is to be played.
Karl Williams
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