A soggy draw in Swansea

The final day of Glamorgan`s Championship match with Kent at Swansea eventually began at 3.50pm after another morning of continuous rain and a persistant sea fret. Both teams had patiently waited in the Swansea pavilion, hoping that the mizzle would lift in mid-afternoon, and with bonus points at a premium, both captains were eager for the chance to secure a further point.

As on the previous three days, the shroud of mist slowly lifted as the tide went out in Swansea Bay, and in the 16 overs that were possible, both teams were duly rewarded for their patience, each picking up a further batting and bowling point.

Glamorgan resumed on 177-8, with Darren Thomas and Dean Cosker initially thwarting Kent`s hopes of a third bowling point. Their partnership had reached 36 as Darren Thomas guided Ben Trott to the third man boundary to put the Welsh county in sight of their first batting point. But in the next over, Cosker was bowled off his thigh pad as he tried to fend off a short ball from Saggers.

Eight balls later, Darren Thomas saw the Welsh county to their first batting point with a pull for two off Trott, and then with the doughty support of last man Steve Watkin, Thomas then set about seeing the Welshmen to what had seemed at first the unlikely prospect of a second batting point.

Thomas duly became the top scorer in the Glamorgan innings when he straight drove Trott to the sightscreen, before Watkin guided the ball to the unguarded third man boundary. Watkin repeated the stroke on two other occasions to take their partnership to 40, but then Thomas chipped Fleming to backward square leg where Robert Key took a chest high catch.

There were 13 overs remaining as the players took to the field again, but before another ball could be bowled, the rain and mist descended again, and the game ended in a soggy draw.

In all, over 200 overs were lost in this, the first of three games which form this year`s Swansea Festival. The loss of so much play was a huge disappointment for the cricketing folk of south-west Wales, and in particular the St.Helen's Balconiers who have worked so hard over the winter months to organise the Festival.

After three days of thick low cloud, steady drizzle and a dank sea fret, there was hardly anything festive about the conditions at the historic St.Helen`s ground. However, the weather forecasters are more optimistic about conditions for the rest of the week, so hopefully the loyal supporters will be rewarded for their hard work with a prompt start to the Championship match against Yorkshire at this ground on Wednesday.

After so many blank days, they will be eager to get back out into the middle, none more so than captain Steve James, who missed the opening fortnight of the season after a knee operation. So far in 2001, the Glamorgan opener has had just one Championship innings, in which he scored a single, and he will be hoping to take his seasonal aggregate into three figures with a more lengthy stay at the crease against Yorkshire.

It was not that long ago that county batsmen at the start of each season aimed to join the small and illustrious group of players who had scored 1 000 runs in first-class cricket by the start of June. Graeme Hick was the last batsman to reach this landmark, back in 1988, but if the weather patterns of the past fortnight are repeated in the years to come, there is a chance that no other county batsman will ever reach this milestone again.