Rain stops play - how s that?

Transcription

1 Weather Vol. 55 May 2000 Rain stops play - how s that? Andrew Hignell Wells Cathedral School Cricket is one of the sports where adverse weather can prevent play from actually taking place. Indeed, some jovially believe that the phrase rain stopped play heralds the arrival of the English sporting summer and, depending on the state of the game and one s allegiance to the participants, it can lead to frustration if it prevents a win or conversely bring salvation if it stops your side from losing! A letter from John Walliker of Dadlington (Wanvickshire) to the Daily Telegraph on 4 September 1998 presented a rather tongue-incheek view of the link between cricket and weather forecasting: Sir - There is a foolproof method of forecasting the weather in England which can be used whenever our national cricket team is playing at home. If, after the first day s play, the team has established supremacy, four days of rain and poor visibility are on the way; should our players be on the rack, the sun will shine until Tuesday. The validity of this method is supported by the team s results in the Caribbean and the Southern Hemisphere, where the weather is always sunny. Whilst no professional forecaster would agree with Mr Walliker s assertions, there is an intriguing link between the loss of cricketplaying time in England and Wales and meteorological processes, and it is the aim of this paper to analyse this association in more detail. The national picture Few detailed surveys have ever been made on the pattern of English county cricket matches affected by rain. In the 1986 edition of Wzsderz Cricketers Almanack, John fitchin undertook a brief survey of wet summers using Meteorological Office data for Hampstead between 1900 and 1986, and tried to identify the worst- affected cricket season. He declared that 1903 was the wettest summer of them all (Kitchin 1986), and cited contemporary reports as a measure of the amount of damage caused by the heavy rain. Indeed, the Editor of the 1903 Wisden claimed that never has county cricket been so much affected by rain as in The summer was the wettest within the experience of anyone now playing first-class cricket, worse even that 1879 and in nearly all parts of the country, the game had to contend with overwhelming disadvantages. As was inevitable under such conditions, the various county clubs suffered severely in pocket (Wisden 1903). The next wet summer, 1912, also had a financial impact on Yorkshire, the county champions, who lost ElOOO, whilst the summer rains of 1924 led the distinguished cricket historian Harry Altham to comment how the county clubs saw match after match make inroads into their funds or pile a balance even greater against them (Altham 1926). Even worse happened when there was a succession of damp summers in 1930, 1931 and During 1931, there was a total of 111 match days on which not a ball was bowled in first-class cricket; then in May 1932, 63 whole days of first-class cricket were lost during the second-wettest May this century, when twice the average amount of rain fell (Webber and Arnott 1949). The cumulative effect of three poor seasons hit several counties very hard, with Glamorgan recording a deficit of E2015 in 1931 followed by El530 in 1932, but only after making stringent economies and releasing several professionals in order to cut expenditure by E2000. The county launched a special appeal in the winter of 1932/33 and, like the other counties, they were mightily grateful that 1933 and

2 Weather Vol. 55 May 2000 were fine summers, allowing Glamorgan to record a profit in 1934 of El In the post-war era, rain badly interfered with the 1946 season, and the same happened in 1954 when the counties between them made a loss totalling A Another poor summer occurred in 1958 with attendances falling by more than compared with Test receipts were also severely affected, and the sum for distribution amongst the first-class counties was just E half of the 1957 figure. The New Zealand tourists lost 174 playing hours, equivalent to a month s cricket, while Lancashire lost 159 hours. Moreover, the game at Hull between Yorkshire and, which was scheduled to last three days, was abandoned on the second morning as the ground was so waterlogged. In 1959 the Editor of Wisden lamented the poor weather and the inadequate way in which the counties combated the English climate: In order to re-start games as soon as possible after rain, experiments in drying the pitch have been tried with the aid of blankets, absorbent rubber mats, rollers of various textures and suction machines which quickly pick up surface water. Yet with all these aids, irritating delays continue and the public becomes less inclined to risk hanging about in the hope of seeing some cricket (Wisden 1959). In an attempt to prevent further financial damage, an experiment took place in 1959 to increase the covering of pitches so that when, in the opinion of the captains and the umpires, the pitch had reached saturation point it should be wholly covered. With great irony, 1959 proved to be one of the best summers on record, and the experimental covering of wickets was discontinued. The 1960s saw several damp summers, especially 1965 and 1968, and the latter is most famously remembered for the final day of the fifth Test between England and Australia at The Oval. During the afternoon, a freak storm completely flooded the playing area, before a mopping-up operation took place and play restarted, with Derek Underwood exploiting the damp conditions to take 7 for 50 and secure a famous England victory by 226 runs, with just five minutes playing time to spare. The next damp summer was 1980, with four matches abandoned without a single ball bowled. Three were in the round of matches starting on 14 June, and persistent heavy rain resulted in no play whatsoever at Swansea, Bristol and Bath. At the end of the season, the Test and County Cricket Board decided that all pitches from should be fully covered. It was a contentious decision, with the Editor of Wisden in 1981 lamenting a loss of a part of the very heritage of English cricket - a drying pitch and a sizzling sun. Some of the great feats of batsmanship have been performed under these conditions. It is to try to make county cricket as much as possible like Test cricket, in which full covering is universally practised (Wisden 198 1). Ever since, county cricket has been played on covered wickets and, with improved covers for the pitches, the effects of rain have, in theory, been reduced. Even so, there is still nothing that the England and Wales Cricket Board can do to prevent rain-bearing fronts from sweeping in from the Atlantic or convectional cells moving north from France! The impact of rain on each county side Few studies have been undertaken at a county scale of the impact of rain and bad light on cricket matches. One of the most detailed surveys so far on the loss of playing time was undertaken by Thornes (1976) using the entries in the match reports in the 1974 Wisden. He classified games as rain-affected if Wisden s correspondent mentioned green, sticky, wet or drying wickets, or if time was lost through rain or bad light. Table 1 shows the total number of hours lost by each county, home and away, during the 1974 season. Glamorgan were the county to lose most time overall, yet it was not the result of being in the wet west as the vast majority of time lost was when they were playing away from home, with their matches at Scarborough, Maidstone, Burton-on-Trent and The Oval being badly affected. In contrast, Leicestershire lost much more time when playing at their Grace Road base and were fortunate enough to escape the 151

3 Weather Vol. 55 Mav 2000 Table 1 The number of hours lost by each county, home and away, in 1974 County Home Away Total L3erbyshire Essex Glamorgan Glow estershire Hampshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Middlesex Northamptonshire Somerset Surrey Sussex Wanvickshire Worcestershire Yorkshire rain when away from Leicester. Thornes (1976) attempted to relate these patterns by looking at the monthly pattern of rain days during the 1974 season. May was drier than average, but June and September were wetter than average, with the end-ofseason fixtures across the country being severely affected by rain. Overall, few counties escaped the rain, whether at home or away, and 85 out of the 170 county matches, scheduled to last three days, were rain-affected in some way as a series of vigorous depressions crossed the country during June and, in particular, September. This worked out at exactly half of the 1974 championship matches being affected by the weather. An even damper situation occurred in 1998 when, in the modern era of four-day games, 90 out of the 158 championship matches saw play lost. This represented 57 per cent of the games, and the figure could have been even higher had not many of the games been completed within three or even two days. Overall, Glamorgan and Northamptonshire were the worst-affected counties, with 13 out of their 17 games losing time to the weather. Lancashire had 12 affected fixtures, followed by Hampshire,, Surrey, Worcestershire and county champions Leicestershire with 11 fixtures. During 1998, I attempted to estimate the amount of weather interruptions on a match- 152 by-match basis, using the yardstick of the number of overs lost on each day, through either bad light, rain, or sleet as in the case of some early-season fixtures! It was possible to make a daily estimate of the number of hours lost using the England and Wales Cricket Board regulation of one over lost for every 33/4 minutes that the players were off the field. On the first three days of each championship fixture, a minimum of 104 overs must be bowled, with 96 on the final day. Hence, by comparing the close-of-play scores each day with the ones from the previous evening it was possible to produce a viable estimate in hours of weather interference. Table 2 shows the amount of time lost by each county, both home and away, during the 1998 season. Overall, Northamptonshire lost most time, with almost 100 hours or around 1600 overs being lost to rain or poor light. However, much of this was during the away matches, especially in late April with Surrey at The Oval, and Hampshire at Southampton, as well as their match in mid-june with Durham at Chester-le-Street. Lancashire and Glamorgan were the other counties in the top three for play lost, and in each case a sizeable proportion of time was lost at Old Trafford and Cardiff, especially as rain-bearing fronts from the Atlantic passed over these grounds. The impact of frontal rain can also be seen on the amount of play lost at home by Worcestershire and Somerset, although Gloucestershire lost less. Perhaps they were lucky enough not to be playing at home when these mature depressions swept across the south-west, or maybe the Bristol ground had better underground drainage or ground-covering systems than their western neighbours? Another intriguing possibility was a localised rain-shadow, caused by the upland areas of south-west England, including the Mendips, or other differences caused by the unique topography of Severnside, as suggested by Mayes (1998). Whatever the cause, the net result was that, overall, Gloucestershire lost just 48 hours of play during the 1998 season, with only Essex losing less time. It was little surprise that Essex were one of the counties least affected by the frontal rain from the Atlantic Ocean. Sussex, in the drier south-east, also escaped a lot of

4 Weather Vol. 55 Table 2 The number of hours lost by each county, home and away, in 1998 county Home Awav Total Derbyshire Durham Essex Glamorgan Gloucestershire Hampshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Middlesex Northamptonshire Somerset Surrey Sussex Warwickshire Worcestershire Yorkshire OO weather interference, as did Yorkshire on their away trips. They were less lucky at home when their matches at Headingley (Leeds) and Scarborough saw the loss of 47 hours play. A comparison is possible between these 1998 figures and Thornes s (1976) results for 1974, although it should not be forgotten that in 1974 each county played 20 three-day games, whilst in 1998 the 17 championship matches spanned a maximum of four days. Even so, it was possible to observe an increase in weather interference in the western counties, most notably Glamorgan, Lancashire and Somerset. A smaller increase can also be seen in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, despite the advent of the large ground cover known as the Brumbella at Edgbaston. This small sample also shows an east-west split during these two time periods, with Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex all losing less than their western counterparts - with the notable exception of Gloucestershire. Care should be exercised in looking at data from just two seasons, but it is clear that the western counties underwent more interruptions because of damper westerly airflows. The wettest grounds Some very interesting patterns also emerge from a ground-by-ground survey using the May 2000 Table 3 Time lost at grounds staging five or more championship games in 1998 Ground Time lost (percentage of total playing time) Old Trafford, Manchester Sophia Gardens, Cardiff Grace Road, Leicester TheCount$hound,Taunton The County Ground, Southampton Headingley, Leeds New Road, Worcester The Oval, London Riverside, Chester-le-Street Edgbaston, Birmingham data. Table 3 shows that Old Trafford and Cardiff were the wettest venues in 1998, due to the aforementioned passage of frontal and relief rainfall over the western side of the country. But Leicester, Southampton, Birmingham and The Oval all appear in this list, suggesting that other mechanisms, especially convectional activity over the Midlands, along the south coast, and in eastern England, triggered localised rainfall and resulted in the loss of play. Indeed, these areas frequently import heavy showers and summer thunderstorms that have originated over northern France, and it is an interesting thought that they might be fuelled even further during their subsequent passage over the warm landmass of southern England. This leads tentatively to the suggestion that the hot moist air parcels could be modified during their passage over the built-up areas, in the same way that Barrett (1 964) suggested that the conurbation itself might be one of the causes for the heavy summer rainfall in the Manchester region. These data represent the results from just one season, yet a similar conclusion about the propensity of large urban centres to lose significant amounts of playing time was drawn from a more detailed survey looking at the number of abandoned championship matches between 1886 and 1987 (Bailey 1992). As Table 4 shows, the Lord s ground in London had the unenviable record of losing the greatest number of games - 14 being abandoned without a single ball being bowled. It was not simply a function of Lord s staging more fix- 153

5 ~ Weather Vol. 55 May 2000 Table 4 Grounds where county championship matches have been abandoned without a ball being bowled, Ground No. of matches Lord s, London 14 Old Trafford, Manchester Nevi1 Road, Bristol The Oval, London 11 Queen s Park, Chesterfield 9 Edgbaston, Birmingham 7 tures than other county grounds, as most of the first-class sides have concentrated their fixtures at a central headquarters. Indeed, when adding the number of matches that Surrey lost across the River Thames at The Oval, London s total of abandoned games rises to 25. This is almost double the number lost in Manchester at the Old Trafford ground, which had the dubious reputation of being the dampest venue in 1998 and the home of county cricket s raining champions! Summer thunderstorms and other convectional cells from northern France must clearly have played a role, but I cannot help wondering about the effect of an urban heat island, as suggested by Chandler (1965), in producing localised instability and heavy downpours. Another intriguing aspect emerges when looking at the temporal pattern of these washouts at Lord s. Climatic records show that summers in southeast England are now generally drier than they were 100 years ago, yet, as Table 5 shows, 7 out of the 14 complete washouts have taken place since The answers to these questions might not, however, lie solely in meteorology. Perhaps the loss of time, especially in recent years, was the result of umpires and players being less tolerant of damp conditions compared with the cricketers of the past. County cricket is now a completely professional game, and each of the 18 county teams has a playing staff whose livehood and employment contract depend on playing performances. Gone are the days when the county sides contained amateurs with a life, and earning power, that was not dependent on scoring runs or taking wickets. These players of the past were probably only too delighted to get a chance to play for their county, and the fact 154 Table 5 Abandoned county championship matchesat Lord s, Date 1889: 10,11,12June 1902: 18,19,20Aug. 1903: 15,16,17 June 1903: 24,25,26Aug : 19,20,21 Aug. 1957: 14,15,16Aug. 1966: 31 Aug. 1,2Sepr. 1967: 24,25,26May 1978: 3,4,5 May 1979: 26,28,29 May 1979: 13,14,15 June 1981:23,25,26May 1983: 11,12,13May 1987: 18,20,21 July Match Kent Lancashire Essex Kent Derbyshire Leicestershire Hampshire Gloucestershire Hampshire Sussex Sussex Yorkshire that the outfield was a bit damp in places was not too great a worry. The trend for more complete abandonments has also quite perversely taken place since the 1960s now that pitch covering has improved. County clubs now have specialist ground staff and equipment to deal with mopping up, whilst some grounds, such as Edgbaston, boast huge, motorised covers that can protect the entire playing area. Perhaps it is the grounds themselves that are the causes of this significant loss of time, and the roles of the local water-table, sub-surface drainage and soil type all merit consideration. Indeed, the addition of water-retentive clayloams has taken place in the past 10 to 15 years at some grounds. Whilst this may have improved the quality and pace of the wickets, it may also have impeded drainage and indirectly affected the amount of playing time lost during damp spells of weather. Conclusions Some interesting and thought-provoking patterns emerge from the study of rain-affected matches in 1998, and more research is clearly needed in order to draw up definite conclusions. At a time when the England and Wales Cricket Board have devised plans to boost the game, it would certainly benefit the authorities

6 Weather Vol. 55 May 2000 to analyse these meteorological patterns. A study in greater detail of the amount of time lost and the pattern of affected county and Test matches could yield huge dividends, especially if the loss of play affects attendances and the highly publicised agreement with Channel Four and Sky Television. Neither channel will want to play reruns of old matches over and over again, or have lengthy interviews with famous players, interspersed with shots of the pitch under covers! Another motive for further research being done is the long-term impact of an increase in temperature, as predicted by Hulme and Jenkins (1998). Their projections for temperature involve a rise in the south-east of 1.3 degc by the 2020s, 2.0degC by the 2050s, and 2.8 degc by the 2080s. They also forecast an increase in annual rainfall in southern England by 2-5 per cent; although some of this would fall during the winter and spring, there is the chance of heavier summer storms. Their report also suggests that the southern half of England could see drier conditions, with a smaller increase in rainfall compared with the northwest and north-east. Lancashire could therefore remain the raining champions of the county game, and careful timing of the Old Trafford Test match would be a huge benefit for all concerned - player, county official, spectator, sponsor, TV watcher and armchair follower. The trend for a warmer climate could be magnified in urban areas, where a more complex and volatile microclimate exists. The rain which preceded England s famous win at The Oval over Australia in 1968 might have been the warning sign that metropolitan grounds could suffer from greater interruptions by the weather. Research clearly needs to be undertaken, not only in identifying whether grounds in large built-up areas are worst affected but, if they are, whether remedial work could be done in improving soil drainage, pitch covering, or even installing covers for the entire ground. If a damper microclimate is discovered, then another fruitful line of analysis might involve the decentralising of grounds to green field or parkland locations, possibly on the rural-urban fringe where the heat island might be less pronounced. If a relocation helps to reduce the amount of time lost, then the decision by the MCC to develop Shenley (Hertfordshire) as an overspill ground for matches at Lord s was a stroke of pure genius! A further aspect that merits investigation is the duration of the matches and the county season itself, which traditionally begins in mid- April and finishes midway through September. Already the major limited-overs games have reserve days, as with the 1998 Nat West Trophy final at Lord s, when rain prevents a match from being completed in one day. If the climate is going to become hotter and damper, then perhaps these reserve days will be needed in championship fixtures as well. An even more radical suggestion would be to extend the season into late September. Further work on monthly patterns of rainfall interruptions might show whether September is a drier time for some counties than mid- April, when the championship fixtures currently begin. The first two rounds of county championship matches in April 1999 were severely curtailed by rain and, at the Riverside ground at Chester-le-Street, even by snow (see Fig. 1). As a result, the 1999 championship became, in effect, a 15-round competition, rather than one with 17 games. A reorganisation of the fixture list, with more matches in September, might well avoid the disruption of the games in the future by so many April showers, although there are restrictions due to the actual length of daylight. This is a variable, crucially unaffected by global warming, and already an allowance is made whereby championship matches in September start at 10.30a.m., instead of the normal time of 11.OO a.m. If adequate ground covers can be installed against the heavy dews, there is no reason why championship matches could not start at 10.00a.m., especially if the cricket-paying public are going to get value for their money and see decent games. In 1997 the English and Wales Cricket Board (1997) produced a document called Raising the standard which suggested reforms to the county structure. As a result of further discussions during 1998, the summer of 2000 will see the introduction of a two-divisional county championship, plus more Test matches and one-day internationals each year in the UK. 155

7 ~ (1959) ~ (1 Weather Vol. 55 May 2000 Fig. 1 The scene at Chester-le-Street on 13 April 1999, when snow prevented any play in the match between Durham and Worcestershire (CP C Paul McGregor Photography) Perhaps what is also needed is a report called Redrawing the boundaries looking at the impact of the weather on county cricket, both at the present time and in the future. Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the help of Dr Eric Midwinter in the preparation of this article, and also Dr Mike Hulme for his most constructive comments on an original draft. The author acts as Honorary Statistician to both Glamorgan County Cricket Club and BBC Radio Wales. His book, entitled Grounds for concern: A geographical analysis of county cricket, will be published soon by Frank Cass Publishers. References Altham, H. S. (1 926) The history of cricket. Allen and Unwin, London Bailey, P. (1 992) Abandoned county championship matches Cricket Stat., 78, pp Barrett, E. C. (1964) Local variations in rainfall trends in the Manchester region. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr., 35, pp Chandler, T. J. (1965) The cliniute of London. Hutchison, London England and Wales Cricket Board (1997) Raising the standard. England and Wales Cricket Board, London Hulme, M. and Jenkins, G. J. (1998) Climate change scenarios for the U. K. : Scientific report, UK Climate Impacts Programme. Technical Report No. 1, Climatic Research Unit, Norwich Kitchen, J. (1986) The wettest summer of them all? In: Wisden Cricketers Almanack, John Wisden & Co. Ltd, London, pp Mayes, J. (1998) Orographic influences on local weather: A Bristol Channel case study. Geography, 83, pp Thornes, J. E. (1976) Rain starts play. Area, 8, pp Webber, R. and Amott, K. M. (1949) Glamorgan The Cricket Book Society Wisden (1903) Wisden Cricketers Almanack. John Wisden & Co. Ltd, London Wisden Cricketers Almanack. John Wisden & Co. Ltd, London 981) Wisden Cricketers Almanack. John Wisden & Co. Ltd, London Correspondence to: Dr A. K. Hignell, Wells Cathedral School, The Liberty, Wells, Somerset BA5 2ST. higgers@rmplc.co.uk 156