GREENMOUNT bowler Mark Stewart speaks with Craig Nelson in the first of a weekly column focusing on the Greater Manchester Cricket League

IT’S disappointing that we didn’t manage to beat the weather at the weekend but I think the league officials were right to get the season under way.

You have to start it some time, you can’t keep putting it back because of bad weather.

What would have happened if we had done and the forecast ends up being just as bad this Saturday? Would we have put it off again?

In the end, only one Premier Division match was completed, but I understand the rest will be played later in the summer, so we haven’t lost anything.

As our first-team game was called off in advance, some of the lads went down to watch our seconds play at home.

At one point, when it started to snow, someone in the crowd started chanting “Get the gritters on” – not something I ever thought I would hear at a cricket match.

Hopefully, I won’t hear it again when the first team finally get under way at home to Unsworth this weekend.

I must admit I am really looking forward to the Unsworth game. Even though they are a Bury team, I have never played them before.

That is the beauty of the Greater Manchester League. There are so many local sides in it that there will be derbies played across every division pretty much every week.

We have got Unsworth, Prestwich and Bury in the Premier Division.

It’s strange for me as I have played in the Bolton League all my life. I don’t think I have played at Bury’s ground since I was a schoolboy.

But the funny thing is that most of the lads know someone at all the other local sides, so there will be a big rivalry there and I expect a lot of good banter.

I must admit, part of me will miss playing in the Bolton League, but this is a clean slate. You knew what challenges you would face against each team because you already knew the players you would be up against.

But now the players of the opposition are just names on a scoreboard. You don’t know what you are up against until you are out there on the pitch, so every game will be a fresh challenge.

For someone like me, who only has a few years left as a player, it is not such a big thing, but it’s great for the younger players.

They have a real chance to make a name for themselves in a new league and I am confident, with the standard of squad we have, they will be able to do that.