LAST Saturday, it was nice to get a full game in without rain or weather problems.

I witnessed some powerful hitting from Chris Barrow at FSC, scoring 55 not out in very quick time and was largely responsible for getting his team to a total of 178, having been 99 after 40 overs.

Then on Sunday I travelled to Headingly to watch my fellow country men.

We saw some very good cricket with 435 runs scored and 11 wickets taken all in a day, but it must have been the coldest day I have ever sat and watched a game of cricket.

I have had some share of those before especially in Wellington at the Basin Reserve when we have started the day sitting on a rug to ending up under it, but this was something else.

We were all dressed as if going to watch a match at the Macron Stadium not the summer sport of cricket.

We were armed with warm coats, rugs, hats, umbrellas, plenty of hot tea and we were on the sheltered side of the ground. Within one over of play, the 12th man was running on with numerous sweaters for the players and it was obvious the umpires were equipped with hand warmers as you don’t usually see the elite umpires with hands in their pockets, between overs.

Being an umpire and a qualified scorer, then it’s not only the players I watch.

First of all , where are the scorers sitting? After a few overs it was easy to spot the red light signal used for acknowledging the umpires signals.

Then it’s the umpires, do they use the pre signal, indicating a leg bye or bye signal is coming next for the scorers. What method of signalling to each other do they use to indicate the number of balls left in the over ? Sure enough at the fourth ball of each over they signalled two left to each other.

Then it’s back to watching the game and listening to the comments from the crowd.

All credit to the players fielding on the boundary for interacting with the crowd in between the balls bowled or overs, even if it was just a rye smile and signing autographs on bats held out by eager youngsters.

A good day had by all, much better than the last time I went to Headingly when saw no play at all due to the rain.

Just as well we didn’t go on Monday! Well done the Black Caps.