Huddersfield League clubs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of getting back on the pitch on Sunday 14th May to replay the opening days fixtures from Sat 15th April - which were pulled after consultation with clubs and their groundsmen.
A cold and wet spring with very little warm weather and sunshine has made ground preparations tortuous for hard-working ground staff since the winter with some reporting they were as much as six weeks behind schedule in preparing pitches to be ‘cricket fit’. In fact, severe gales along with torrential rain just three days before the scheduled start rendered covers, sight screens and sheets unusable across the area.
A swift canvassing of clubs returned a quick conclusion which prompted the league’s Executive committee to decide to postpone the opening Saturday’s matches pending a further decision with what to do. Again, clubs have been polled and have voted massively in favour of completing the fixtures on the first available Sunday on 14th May. The league would like to thank those clubs that returned their votes in a prompt manner in order to finalise plans.
Only two Premiership clubs voted to share points with the other ten teams desiring play. The Championship followed a similar trend with nine of the 12 clubs voting in favour of replaying. The Conference returned 8 clubs who were also in favour. A small number of clubs had not yet voted, but their choices would not affect the overall outcomes.
The fixture programme this coming Saturday 22nd April will of course go ahead as scheduled.
