After the past few weekends with games being rain affected, it was nice to see the sun eventually appear on Saturday and all games played to a conclusion without the use of Duckworth-Lewis-Stern.

That bit of sun makes things so much easier for everyone - players, spectators and umpires. There is nothing worse than standing on the cricket field being cold.

On Saturday it was a little cool to begin with, but as a player said it became warm but pleasant enough to play in as there was a bit of a breeze.

I have been asked recently about why I think there have been many high run totals, not only in local league matches but in international games as well.

Is it the bats being used are heavier therefore the ball can go further when hit? Is it poor bowling or is it hard, dry pitches? To be honest, I don’t really know. It can be a bit of each.

Bats are heavier than they used to be but still have to conform to the correct measurements as far as depth is concerned as there is a bat gauge to be used to check the width and depth. Any bat that doesn’t conform to the gauge is deemed to be illegal. More use of these gauges will probably come in next year for local leagues so anyone buying a new bat should be aware of the regulations. It is certainly applied in county matches as have seen some bats being measured before the batter could use them.

The bowlers may have found it harder bowling on rock-hard pitches, something a bit unusual for English conditions in May and June. Usually, hard pitches appear later, in our league anyway. Since we have had some rain, scores have reduced so it could be just hard pitches and not being used to those conditions so early on.

They say catches win matches which was certainly true when, on Saturday, a running diving catch by a fielder ended their opponent’s innings and obtained a victory.

The art of catching has changed, especially when fielding on the boundary as players now practice leaping up and tapping the ball back in play while running off behind the boundary line and returning to catch it themselves or palming it back for a fellow fielder to catch it.