The weather gods played a cruel hand on the opening weekend of the 2022-23 Seymour District Cricket Association competition, with matches across all grades washed out.
This came after the Seymour region copped 32mm of rain across Thursday and Friday last week, making it impossible for clubs to prepare a suitable pitch in time for the scheduled matches on Saturday.
The league waited until Friday afternoon, after the rain had fallen, to make the decision, unlike neighbouring association Cricket Shepparton, which made the call on Tuesday evening.
It was a disappointing way to start the new season, but SDCA president Ben Trezise said the league had no option but to call the round off.
“We leave it up to the clubs to decide whether their ground is suitable to play or not, so that led to us being a bit later than other leagues,” Trezise said.
“A big thing was actually waiting until we got the rain, more than anything. We didn’t want to pull the pin and then find out the weather forecasters got it wrong.
“All the clubs were happy to wait until Friday and unfortunately the rain was too much for any of the grounds to get up.”
Following the call to cancel the games, the association was then faced with a decision on what to do with the round one results.
Despite some appeals for the round to be rescheduled, Trezise said it would not be possible given the potential for further washouts.
“This weekend goes down as a washout and everyone gets even points,” he said.
“A few people were asking if the games could be rescheduled, but what if round two is washed out or round three? It’s not possible to just reschedule all the rain-affected rounds.
“We couldn’t just keep pushing back weekends of cricket to later in the season.”
The SDCA could be faced with a similar situation this weekend, with 60mm to 85mm of rain predicted to fall on the Seymour region across this Wednesday and Thursday.
“Mother Nature, you can’t do much about it, sometimes she’s nice to you and other times she isn’t and I think this week is going to be very similar to last,” Trezise said.
“I am not going to make any early decisions this week, though. Once again we’ll wait until the rain comes down and then go from there.”