No play at Canterbury
Tue 31 May 2016
There wasn’t a ball bowled on the third day of the Specsavers County Championship game between Kent and Leicestershire.
Rain prevented a prompt start at Canterbury and an early lunch was taken at 12.30pm while the groundstaff did a fine job in clearing the surface water.
Match officials Alex Wharf and Paul Pollard inspected either side of lunch and, at one point, had hoped for a 2.30pm start as the precipitation relented. However, the cloud cover increased to scupper their plans.
The floodlights were initially on hand to enhance the natural light if it improved sufficiently but mid-afternoon wind gusts meant that they had to be turned off and lowered.
Everything seemed to be pointing against a start and umpires Wharf and Pollard had no choice but to abandon the day at 4.10pm, so Leicestershire hold a lead of 224 going into the final day.
County has suffered with the weather this term but you also have to feel for Kent, who has now lost 900 overs of play – the equivalent of two entire Specsavers County Championship fixtures.
