HOW unlucky were we with the weather over the weekend?

Having had glorious, warm sunshine leading up to Saturday, we had cloud bursts and thunderstorms on Saturday and overnight rain for Sunday’s games.

The dreaded rain-rate calculations were the order of the day.

Over the last couple of matches there have been players who have arrived late to their game and the umpires have been asked when he can bat or, if fielding, when he can bowl?

There is nothing in the Bolton Cricket League rules to say when a batsman can bat.

In our league he can bat at the fall of any wicket.

I have known a player to miss the whole of the opposition’s innings only to arrive between innings and bat almost immediately.

Some competitions have a rule that if you are not on the field at the end of your opponents innings then you cannot bat until a certain number of wickets has fallen. We don’t have such a rule.

It’s a bit different for someone who wants to bowl.

If he is off the field for 15 minutes or more, then he has to wait until he has been on the field for the amount of time he has been off before he is allowed to bowl.

It is straightforward really, however what happens if it rains, as it did on Saturday, and the umpires had to take the players off the field?

We were off for 38 minutes and were asked if this time counted against the late player.

We had to tell them that if he arrived while no play was taking place and went back on to the field with the rest of his team-mates when play restarted, then that time wouldn’t be counted.

If he didn’t take the field with the rest of the team then it would. This player arrived one hour and 22 minutes into the game and therefore could not bowl until that time had passed.

This rule doesn’t only apply to someone who is late – it applies to any player leaving the field who should let the umpire know and the time he left is duly noted for the purpose of exceeding the 15 minutes' allowance.

If he comes back on after five minutes he can bowl straight away. However, to come back on he must ask the umpires' permission.

He doesn’t need to wait until the end of the over to do so as umpires will let the player on as soon as the ball is dead, providing he has asked to come on.