With the Ashes now over and the South Africa vs South Africa 2nd XI test series yet to start, in his latest posting KF turns to one of the er ..... burning issues of the day.Climate change !!! Is it really happening? As I'm about 99% unqualified to judge (with a 1% error margin), I feel I must waffle on this contentious topic immediately. Is it colder now than a month ago ? Yes. Is it warmer than it was last night ? Yes. Seems like a no brainer to this no brainer. Indeed, if the climate didn't change it would surely be time to worry.
But what has this got to do with the East League fixture schedule, I hear you ask ? The ESCA website has announced that the fixtures for next season "will run from Saturday 1st May until Saturday 28th August inclusive". Meaning the usual pre-season friendlies will be on the 17th and 24th April. You may see where I'm going with this now. Indeed, I could say you are already getting warmer (or colder).
I don't recall any "t-shirt weather" during this early period of the season and my memories of playing cricket at that time primarily involve at least two jumpers. Come the end of August and into September, once the season has ended for most folk, its flip flop and barbecue time. Cricket doesn't necessarily require the players to be warm, but it does require the best of weather conditions to get a decent or at least playable pitch. I believe it's time to look at adjusting the season as I believe it starts and ends too early.
Squinting briefly at Scottish football, there is often talk of a winter shutdown. The obvious problem with this being that our winter can last about 8 months, so which 2-4 week period do you close down for ? Trying to nail down exactly when, or even if, we have our summer isn't much less difficult.
A serious look must be had at historical temperature records, rainfall charts and anything else of use. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there's been no cricket played on the 3rd of July for 120 years or something similar, but I'm sure those records would back up my intuition that the open and close of the season require amendment. As the days shorten in September the kick-off times might have to be brought forward an hour.
In the meantime, I'm sure Jon B will take orders for club fleeces or maybe for long johns (with embroidered badges ???? fnarr).
It is now time for you to shout down my simplistic idealism with unfortunate realities like overlaps with the rugby season or pitch availability or whatever ......
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Spot on KF, July is the wettest month of the year on average for Edinburgh. It was immensely frustrating to see Septembers weather and to be at home with mates still playing league cricket in merseyside and elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAs for April friendlies, the Uni vs Cross friendly this year played in single figure temperatures at peffermill!!!!
Maybe we also need a July shutdown!!!
ReplyDeleteI suggest we build a giant covered stadium - the Crossdome, or maybe the Stadium of Shite.
ReplyDeleteThen again, if we were indoors, McGill would be barred from smoking on the pitch.
I was at a meeting considering venues in Edinburgh recently and the football rep explained that they had already made the women's football a summer sport (March to October I think), and that they hoped to make all the men's leagues change to the summer too soon. I sort of asked him if he expected cricketers to roll over and have their tummies tickled to allow priority to football, and he didn't really have an answer.
ReplyDeletePeebles have already said that they cannot play any league matches at home till June because the soccer clubs have booked the pitches throughout May.
So maybe it will get worse rather than better. It is not just council grounds - school grounds change to other sports in late August too. The Meadows is available in September!