LAST weekend was extremely busy and very much influenced by the weather, yet I got two of my three games completed.

On Friday, having watched the rain come down in torrents at Egerton at the under-11s Bolton district game against Wigan earlier in the day, I was surprised to see how dry the Horwich ground was later that night and that we could start the T20 match against Daisy Hill straight away.

While it was a bit one-sided in Horwich’s favour, the game was played in excellent spirit and there was a good atmosphere around the ground with music blasting out between overs.

However, that’s not the only thing the game will be remembered for.

I am talking about midges. Batsmen, umpires and anyone who stood still for a moment, battled against swarms of these. I have the numerous bites to prove it.

Saturday saw me visit Atherton who were playing Blackrod. It turned out to be a low-scoring game but with plenty of goodwill and very sporting gestures.

A ball was driven straight back to the bowler who deflected the ball on to the stumps with the umpire trying to get out of the way.

There was an appeal and the next thing we saw was the batsman walking towards the pavilion having given himself out. When talking to him at the end of the innings he said he knew he was out as not only were his feet not behind the popping crease, but his bat wasn’t grounded either.

He said if he had gone on to make a big score he wouldn’t have felt happy with himself knowing he should have been out sooner. I wonder how many others would have done the same?

It’s nice to see the spirit of cricket is very much evident at some clubs.

There were also batsmen who walked knowing they had hit the ball in Sunday's abandoned cup match at Kearsley.

It’s so nice to see a batsman tuck his bat under his arm and head for the pavilion knowing he doesn’t need to wait for the umpire’s decision because he knows he got a very fine touch to the ball.

This brings to mind a schoolboy match many years ago when my husband was umpiring and number one son was batting. A loud appeal went up and an umpire's finger was raised. The comment was: “Gee dad, I only just hit it."