THE Queen's Jubilee was nearly a washout, gardeners' allotments have been ankle-deep in water and rain has interrupted the Old Trafford Test Match.

But the doom and gloom of June is just what we should be expecting, according to weather experts at the Met Office.

Its meteorologists say there has been 41.2mm of rain in Bolton in the past two weeks, which is 50 per cent of the monthly average -- or par for the course.

But gardeners and allotment owners say they will stay under a cloud until they spy more blue skies.

Richard Heyes, chairman of Bolton Allotments Society, said: "The season got off to a brilliant start, but it seems to have gone backwards now.

"We're facing an uphill battle this year. We've just not had enough sunshine."

The meteorologists are hopeful the weather will improve, but their charts say there will be more rain over the next few weeks.

Met Office spokesman Sean Clarke said: "June has not started off very well and we predict there will be a lot of rain over the coming days. But there will be sunshine as well, so it's not all doom and gloom.

"Just a couple of years ago the weather was poor at the start of June, but by the end of the month the sun was shining and the temperature was 30 degrees."

Bolton's weather expert, meteorologist Graham Fullarton, is also hopeful of a sunny summer, but he also thinks there could be more rain over the next few weeks.

He said: "The problem is that there has been a patch of low pressure off the coast of Scotland and it has steered a lot of bad weather over the North-west. People say you need to get the bad weather out of the way early if you are to have a good summer. It might be better to have the rain now rather than in the next few months."