Bakewell's Pitches deemed unplayable

Kesteven's 18 merry men and accompanying entourage of coaching staff and statiticians etc set off from Grantham for the 70 mile/1.5hr trek to the Derby Dales and Bakewell.

We arrived at the showground on Agricultural Way, found the pitch but no sign of a club house or changing facilities anywhere in sight - just a rather large barn, a café and the smallest funfair in the world ever! Everyone we asked turned out to be a tourist so all that was left to do was ring the Mannerian's President. Having tried quite a few of the clubs committee members we were eventually directed to the Cricket Pavilion some distance from the pitch and on the other side of a very swollen river Wye!

The Bakewell coach, in stout waterproof boots and long Australian Stockman's wax jacket and matching hat, greeted us and explained that the pitch was not in the greatest of shapes due to the rain and that the ref would need to determine whether the game went ahead or not. K's mentioned this to the ref when he arrived and he decided to go and have a look.

The Kesteven team warmed up on the cricket pitch and then packed the camping stove and sleeping bag for the hike over to the pitch for the 2:15pm kick off. When we arrived at the pitch, there obviously had been quite a lot of rain! The pitch, as a whole, had vast areas of standing water over it but particular concern was over the handful of 4 inch deep ponds on the 22m lines and other areas (complete with ducks!?!) that potentially posed a safety issue.

The referee spoke to the 2 Captains and while it was agreed we could play, the concern was over the safety element and the game was consequently abandoned/postponed.

The general consensus amongst the Kesteven team was that the game should have been called off in the morning. This would have saved Kesteven the 140+ mile round trip, reels of tape etc. The match could have gone ahead but the game would have had safety concerns and would have resulted in a sustained amount of match disturbance with any breakdowns in the ponds either requiring scuba gear or play stoppage due to drowning risk!

Don't forget your wetsuits for the rearranged fixture - likely to be the 16th November!

Team would've been (and thanks to all 18 that travelled!):
Scott Odams, Rob Sheardown, James Cowley, Mark Sayle Jnr, Martin Carew, Tom Webster (c), Andrew Peabody, Tony Woolerton, Adam Draper, Matt Harland, James Goodrich, Will Cann, Will Bradley, Jake Hughes, Ollie Hughes, Aaron Whitaker, Gavin Purvis, Matthew Ballaam.