By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE

PLYMPTON chairman Jon Goulder has called for Devon League rules to be relaxed after his club’s 1st XI ‘controversially’ conceded a Premier West game at Paignton.

Plympton’s car convoy arrived at Queen’s Park more than an hour before the scheduled 12.30pm start time. Although it was not raining then, by 12.30pm conditions had deteriorated and the start was going to be delayed.

With no definite start time to work to, Plympton players started to drift away from the ground and head home.

George Benton, the Paignton captain, tried to salvage the situation by suggesting a 30-over match or T20 game starting after 3pm – and offered to loan Plympton players to make up the numbers.

Senior Plympton players still on the ground called club chairman Goulder for advice and the decision was to concede the game and go home.

Goulder said heavy rain had been predicted several days earlier in weather forecasts and it would have made sense to adjust start and maybe finish times then.

“These are unusual times for everyone playing cricket and you can’t just sit around on a wet cricket ground in a car waiting for it to stop raining,” said Goulder.

“It was well known there was going to be rain on Saturday and we were unlikely to start on time.

“It would have been far better to take the forecast into account and allow clubs the flexibility to arrange a shorter game with a later start time. 

“Had we been told before we left that we could play a T20 from 4pm, we would have agreed. Arriving at 3.30 for a 4pm start is far better than expecting young cricketers to sit around in cars for hours, which is what we were being asked to do.

“Some people will say what we did was controversial, but there is no promotion or relegation this season which means nothing on games.

“We need to find ways to get the game on and playing some cricket. If you are a young cricketer being offered 1st XI cricket this season, are you going to turn-up next week if the previous Saturday was a waste of your time?

“Perhaps the league can look favourably on allowing clubs to move start and finish times or change game lengths to make it possible to get cricket played?” 

Benton, the Paignton captain, said three things irritated him about Plympton’s decision to concede the game.

“After waiting nearly three months to play some cricket I was amazed Plympton did not want to get out there,” said Benton.

“When one of the senior players came to talk things over and two lads had already left, I offered to play nine-a-side or loan them a player.

“They did not want that and were not prepared to wait another hour to try to fit a 30-over game in.

“And the rest of their players left our ground without saying they were going. They just drove off. 

“As far as I was concerned it was a waste of a day.”