South Barwon pleased with cricket pitch health despite Geelong flooding

A Geelong club is optimistic its club will withstand recent flooding and host games in the not-too-distant future.

South Barwon's Brad Hauenstein for Friday cricket page. Picture: Peter Ristevski

SOUTH Barwon coach Brad Hauenstein says he is hopeful that cricket will return to the club’s home ground soon despite recent flooding at the riverside reserve.

Recent rainfall across the Geelong region was enough for the Barwon River to burst its banks, resulting in South Barwon Reserve going under water for a number of days.

Hauenstein said that despite the heavy rain and flooding at the club’s home ground, he was optimistic the wicket was not significantly damaged.

“We were probably pretty lucky that it was more water that was left over on the ground rather than the mud or the residue that came out of the river,” he said.

South Barwon and Marshall cricket clubs were under water due to the floods. Picture Jared Maher.

“We were actually quite shocked on Sunday morning that the water had pretty much gone straight away again.

“It didn’t leave any excess stuff that actually damages the wicket.

“About 20 years ago the same thing occurred and we had all the mud through the wicket and that destroyed it so we had to get the wicket re-laid.

“We haven’t been able to get the wicket up to standard of playing cricket for this weekend, it’s still pretty soft in some areas and it would only take some rain to knock it out and that’s the real issue down there at the moment, the wicket and the surrounds are a bit too boggy.

“So fingers crossed that it’s not too bad in there but it actually looks quite healthy considering the rain and water that was left on it.”

South Barwon was set to play North Geelong at home on Saturday, but that fixture was moved to the Magpies’ home ground at Osborne Park in an effort to start the season.

South Barwon bowler Brad Hauenstein celebrates a wicket with team mates.GCA1 game between South Barwon and Lara. Picture: Peter Ristevski

GCA vice president Sam Hall said most of the competition’s pitches were in better condition than he could have hoped for.

“We’re hoping for a bit of luck this week,” he said.

“With the nice weather that we’ve been having the grounds that were looking pretty dicey are now not looking too badly.

“The feedback we’ve had from clubs has actually been not too bad, we’ve made the call and clubs were able to get their covers off and give their pitches a really good soaking and then this week the weather has been pretty good.

“The majority of the wickets are in pretty good condition.”

Originally published as South Barwon pleased with cricket pitch health despite Geelong flooding