Geelong Cricket Association set to begin season after six missed rounds

The Geelong Cricket Association has made a decision for the weekend’s state of play after midweek rain threatened the round of cricket again.

Cricket GCA1 Grand Final. East Belmont v North Geelong. North Geelong batsman Sam Hall centre has Andrew Ferguson reach him to celebrate the win over East Belmont with Steve Meehan right Picture: Mark Wilson

GEELONG Cricket Association is set to begin its season after six false starts, with a midweek downpour not enough to prevent play from beginning on Saturday.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted about 10mm of rain to fall on Thursday and multiple showers across Friday and Saturday, but Geelong only received about 6mm in the midweek rainfall.

GCA vice-president Sam Hall said the luck was finally on the competition’s side.

“All signs are pointing towards finally starting our season,” he said.

“The notice went out to clubs to cover the squares on Thursday morning and everyone made the effort to do that, so that’s why we’re in a pretty good position now.

“It was concerning when they originally predicted 10-20mm, so we got a bit lucky it wasn’t as bad.”

GCA had six weeks called off. Picture: Mark Wilson

The GCA fixture had been redrawn twice to accommodate for the persistent wet weather, with two-day cricket scrapped for a third straight season.

With persistent rainfall and flooding plaguing the early stages of the season, many grounds were out of action or completely under water, with South Barwon Cricket Club completely covered for more than a week.

Hall said he expected every game to go ahead, with minimal location changes predicted.

“I haven’t heard of any grounds not being available, our (North Geelong) fourth’s team may need to swap grounds but that’s still up in the air,” he said.

“There might be one or two that I don’t know about, but the impact will be minimal, I think everyone is pretty much ready to go.

“The way this season has panned out, everyone is desperate to play, so if grounds are right and we can get on then we will get on.

“No news is good news, everyone is pretty rapt because earlier in the week there would’ve been a few people worried we’re going to get called off again.”

Originally published as Geelong Cricket Association set to begin season after six missed rounds