After a midweek downpour, the GCA is increasingly hopeful of playing on Saturday

GCA grounds committee chair Darren Hauenstein says after some doubt during the week, the majority of grounds are “positive” heading into Saturday.

South Barwon ovals are flooded again.

Geelong Cricket Association officials have given the strongest indication yet that turf and hard-wicket matches will go ahead this weekend.

In a boost for competitions ravaged by six successive wash outs, matches appear increasingly likely to start on Saturday, with recent sunshine and wind allowing a number of grounds to recover from a heavy midweek downpour.

GCA grounds committee chair Darren Hauenstein declared that matches would be played as scheduled, despite a handful of grounds ruled out following Tuesday’s flooding.

Marshall and South Barwon’s turf ovals are out of action after the Barwon River flooded for a second time and left both grounds under water, while neighbouring hard-wicket grounds in the South Barwon precinct are also unplayable.

South Barwon ovals are flooded again.

But a host of other turf and hard-wicket grounds that copped 70-80mm of rain on Tuesday and were deemed unsuitable for play, are now bouncing back after welcome sunshine in the past 24 hours.

“The majority of grounds, especially after the sun we’ve got in the last day or so, will be ready to play,” Hauenstein said.

“There were mixture of hard-wicket and turf grounds that were in doubt, but a majority of those are positive since then.

“There were clubs who couldn’t get rollers on until yesterday (Thursday) but after the drying (weather) we had, most were up and about and saying ‘we’re on’.

“From a turf point of view we’ve got two grounds out in South Barwon and Marshall, but I haven’t had any other feedback from any others saying they won’t be right, other than Torquay.

“But we’d be hoping with conditions like today, we should be right. There’s grounds at South Barwon and Belmont Common where we’ve had to move games, and North Geelong’s hard-wicket has moved, but we don’t have any others that are definitely out.”

Torquay’s Spring Creek Reserve, which recently underwent a redevelopment of its square, will be hoping for more sunshine to ensure Saturday’s GCA2 first XI clash between the Tigers and Leopold goes ahead.

Torquay’s wicket gets some work last season.

“They were touch and go, but based on the weather we’re currently having, they should hopefully be right,” he said.

“We had some clubs raising concerns that their squares were very wet — Corio and Bell Park had reached out and said that — but by the end of the day both clubs were all good.

“They had managed to get on the roller and their wickets were looking a treat.

“Just the wind and sun did a world of good. A lot of the grounds host footy in the GFL, BFL and GDFL and they’ve had work done on their drainage and they drain really well, we just need a break from the rain.

“It all looks positive.”

However forecast rain on Saturday has placed Sunday’s Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition matches under a cloud.

“By looking at the forecast we’ve got rain coming on Saturday, but the bulk of that is coming on Saturday night,” Hauenstein said.

“Hopefully that’s only short or not much so we can get games on. Hopefully by then the grounds are covered for Sunday and we’re all good.

“I would think we’re going ahead on Saturday and it will be in the hands of the umpires. From a grounds point of view, everything seems to be coming together nicely.”

Two ruled out, 12 under threat: GCA washout likely after flooding

There are growing concerns that another round of Geelong Cricket Association matches will be abandoned amid confirmation that up to 12 grounds are not expected to be suitable to host games this weekend.

South Barwon and Marshall have already been ruled out of action for this weekend after their grounds flooded on Tuesday, with games being shifted to East Belmont and Geelong West respectively.

Grounds committee member Darren Hauenstein said the constant rain had left the league “unsure” whether games would go ahead on Saturday.

“It hasn’t been great, the Barwon River flooded and that’s ruled out a couple of grounds,” he said.

“South Barwon and Marshall are completely out of action this week, and there’s a chance they might not be able to have games next week either.

“Clubs haven’t been able to get on to prepare anything because of the rain, some areas have copped about 70-80mm this week, about a dozen grounds have told us they’re well behind where they’d want to be.

South Barwon ovals are flooded again.

“Even some hard wicket grounds are in a bit of trouble, some of them have flooded.

“Alexander Thomson, Geelong West and East Belmont’s lower grade teams are all looking at potentially being moved as well.”

With senior games being moved to the ‘away’ team grounds, the second division matches have been shifted to Sunday matches to avoid clashes between the games.

Only one round of cricket has gone ahead for the GCA this season, with six weeks of washed out games forcing league officials to reschedule matches.

Hauenstein said he hoped games could start on Saturday and rain stayed away long enough to get some results.

“It’s not until we can see the grounds, we’ll have a better idea after clubs start reporting back to us, and we can have a better idea of the condition of them all,” he said.

“At this stage the predictions are not great, we’re still expecting a bit of rain on Saturday.

“We’re hoping the rain is not seen until about 4pm or 5pm, and at least that gives us a chance to get a fair few results.”

Originally published as After a midweek downpour, the GCA is increasingly hopeful of playing on Saturday