BANK Holiday weekend was extremely busy with matches over all three days as well as keeping an eye on what was happening at Lords!

Glad I wasn’t able to watch an epic melt down of my national team although hubby was quite happy.

I witnessed some fine bowling performances and good catches at the Walkden v Horwich match on Saturday which was followed by a very interesting Lancashire KO match on Sunday at Atherton CC who played Rochdale Catholic CC.

Now if you want to see a team enjoy a game of cricket then Rochdale showed the way.

Plenty of banter but in a nice way, which wasn’t getting at anyone and there were smiles all round, both umpires and all players alike.

How could you keep a straight face with comments like: 'My son is coming onto bowl, it could go anywhere, can I stand behind you ump” or even the to the captain: “place him in the trees as ball will end up there “when bowling to Athertons professional.

Well done Rochdale Catholic CC for showing the amateur game can be fun and enjoyable .

On Monday I was at Walkden for the T20 matches.

There we witnessed some big hitting, fine boundary catches , good ground fielding and bowling all accompanied to appropriate music which added to the day. All three matches went to the last over so well done to all teams who took part for providing exciting finishes for the spectators.

At one of those T20 games the question of wides in relation to a player switch hitting the ball was raised.

This is where the batsman takes his normal guard and then turns to face the other way as the bowler bowls the ball.

The law states that the off side of the strikers wicket shall be determined by the batsman’s original stance at the moment the ball comes into play for that delivery.

Therefore the leg side must stay the same for his original stance and if the ball passes the original leg side ( now off side by the position of the striker ) then if playing leg side wides it will be called a wide. This interpretation is applied to LBW as well as the number of fielders on the leg side when met with the latest craze of switch hitting.

n There will be a free introduction to umpiring course held at Astley Bridge CC on Tuesday June 16th starting at 7.30pm lasting approximately two hours.

To reserve a place please contact me on 01024 535842