Even hardened sailors could not face the weather this Tuesday, when consistent rain caused the cancellation of what would have been a fine naval display between Shipwrecks and Kirkmahoe - and a cricket game we might have had some chance of winning.
And so another Scottish cricket season trickles on, as both midweek and weekend teams find it ever harder to persuade players to turn out for fixtures that are likely to be cancelled for the weather. The last players to have experienced playing much cricket at state schools before the changes to Teachers' terms and conditions in the eighties will just about be coming up for retirement and younger recruits have a vast array of different sports to chose from*, quite apart from rugby and football, which increasingly encroach on what was the cricket season.
As a result, the signs are that many clubs are struggling to put teams out and the standards of play are declining. The main focus of Cricket Scotland (latest web headline: "Rain halts Scottish run chase") seems to be to put out increasing bureaucratic exercises for clubs to complete, so that one wonders if it could ever be possible to start up a new club and get into one of the Leagues without a five year development plan produced by a management consultant.
Ultimately though, there are two main problems hampering cricket in Scotland - the weather and the fact that current forms of the game are too long to attract young people hung up on instant gratification. Until someone looks seriously at shorter, indoor forms of the game, my fear is that the decline will continue.
Except of course for a small number of elite clubs in the central belt and one or two outposts with hundreds of members paying £££s each in subscriptions, who will be able during climate change to go on playing occasional and cancelling many fixtures with each other until the money runs out. Will they at some point turn, look around at what is happening to smaller clubs and lower leagues and start to get worried?
Note: This sudden switch to editorial rant mode does not necessarily reflect the views of The Shipwrecks plc or its umbrella organisation, The Ship Inn.
*They won't however have the chance to see much cricket unless they can get Sky Sports.
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