Cobo hit by freak weather

IF YOU are planning a barbecue, check first to see whether Cobo are playing. It is almost halfway through the season and there has been hardly any cricket as the terrible summer we are having means that most of the division one teams have completed only three or four games in each of the leagues.

The exception is Cobo who have had three weekend league games out of four called off and have managed to get onto the field only twice in the Evening League so far this season.

They are becoming an old wives tale.

Forget 'if you can see Jersey there will be rain', use 'if Pete Vidamour's team are supposed to be playing cricket today, pack your brolly'.

The current weather report for their game against Mavericks on Sunday is sunny, but that goes out of the window when they go down to the KGV.

'The forecast looks good at the moment but it should read that it will rain as we're playing,' said Vidamour.

'It's becoming frustrating as we're not playing and when you're not playing, you lose your rhythm. At the end of last season we were playing good cricket because we were playing regularly.

'Fortunately we've got four or five guys in the island squad so they are getting regular games.'

Apart from Cobo's meteorological bad luck, this situation questions the weekend league's format of using average points per match.

This is used at present as there is only one grass wicket available for the weekend league, the KGV, and its packed schedule means that it is nigh-on impossible to re-arrange matches.

Cobo's only weekend game saw them beat Rovers and take the maximum 40 points in the process. They are joint-top with Optimists.

'As the league is run on average points, people are saying that we're alright getting maximum points in our first game,' said Vidamour.

'But it's a farce having games that are rained-off affect the outcome of the league. Hopefully the new pitches will address this next year.'

A new square has been laid at Rovers' Port Soif ground. It will be up and running for next year's weekend campaign, which could mean that rained-off games can be re-arranged.

According to the GCA's weekend officer Dave Piesing, this will not happen.

'It's impossible,' he said.

'Re-arrangements will never happen. If we were to re-arrange games you would have to keep the second half of the season free and this is when we have the Channel Islands Championships.

'The biggest change for next season is that all league games can be played on the same day, so that if there is rain, both games are rained-off. The chances are then that everyone will complete the same number of games.

'This has affected Cobo this year: most of their matches have been on Sundays and it's been raining most Sundays. It's a freak. I've never known a summer like it before.'

With re-arrangements out of the window, one other solution to the points-for-abandoned-games problem apart from average points is to share the points.

Piesing does not think this is good idea and he defends the average points way.

'Average points is by the far the fairest system,' he said.

'It means that you get judged by your performance on the pitch.

'With shared points, it is a less fair system as you drop half the points for every game that you don't play.

'We've tried both systems and average points is best as it accurately links everyone's league position to their performances on the pitch.'

If re-arrangements are not possible, then the average points method is a more viable option than shared points.

Teams do lose points for when they do not play, but more importantly, weaker teams gain points when they do not play.

This debate raises its ugly head only whenever games are called off and the answer to stopping it raining is simple: don't allow Cobo to play.