The time: 3:50 am
The place: Coach’s house

Today’s entry find’s Coach fast asleep dreaming of five wicket hauls. All too soon his dream of cricketing greatness is disturbed by No.1 Son climbing into bed with Mum & Dad for the third week in a row. Coach strains his ears for the doom-laden sound of persistent rainfall, he hears nothing, Smiling a dreamy smile Coach slips back beneath the waves of sleep.

WAAAH!

Bleary eyes eye the clock & clock the time: 5:30am.

WAAAH!

No.2 Son insistently reiterates that it’s time for his next feed. Coach brokers the deal to Mrs Coach: “I’ll make it if you feed him.”, “Ok.” is the response.

In the kitchen Coach peers through the window at the foreboding sky, “Very cloudy but dry, there’s still a chance of a game today.” he ponders.

In a defiant protest against any weather gods watching Coach selects his favourite Hawaiian shirt to wear to work, but then reneges on his protest by grabbing a coat as he leaves for work.

BEEP BEEP!

Half way between Vauxhall & Wimbledon the bombshell drops…the groundsman’s inspection of the pitch is unfavourable, there’s only a 50/50 chance that the match will go ahead. There’ll be another inspection at 10:30 and the final decision made then…the bomb is on a time delay, inexorably ticking down.

TICK TICK BOOM

Another text and it’s the one Coach was dreading but expecting, the pitch is still sodden & unplayable and the match is off. Ten minutes later and an e-mail comes through stating the same but with more information. Top marks to the captain’s thorough communication to his players thinks Coach.

His demeanour glum at the news, Coach decides that the only thing worse than wasting an afternoon off is expecting to have one & then having to cancel it & do a full day.

Then it strikes him, if he still takes his half day he’ll be able to make the start of the Rosaneri net instead of turning up halfway through. In so doing he’ll not only be getting some much needed practice in but also will be present to offer his advice to all the other willing players braving the elements to improve their game.

All these rain clouds may have a silver lining after all…