CANCELLING the entire GMCL fixture programme early was the wrong decision, in my opinion, but I doubt they will be repeating it in the future.

There was talk of doing the same thing before the opening weekend of the season, but officials rightly chose to let nature take its course.

I know not too many games were played in the end, but I still think it was right to give it a go.

If you consult the weather forecast before every weekend not too many games will be played all season.

Taking the decision out of the hands of the umpires robs the clubs that have spent money on drainage of a rightful advantage.

As it happens, Greenmount’s ground would have been fit to host our game against Edgworth, and I am sure there were other clubs that could have had some play.

Myself and some of the lads spent the day down at Bradshaw watching a cricket match in the Bolton League. It was pretty hard to stomach, watching other clubs play when we all knew we could have been playing ourselves.

It has meant the season has been stop-start so far – with only one game played in three weekends.

For an old dog like myself, I have found it tough going. After managing to loosen up and get myself going with our opening win against Unsworth, the body has just seized up again from not playing. We have not been able to train as much as we would have liked either because of the weather, so it means we will continue to be rusty for a few more weeks.

Every team is in the same boat though, so you just have to make the best of a bad situation. What I wonder, though, is what financial impact this will have had on teams in the league?

There is a lot to consider when cancelling fixtures. Many teams, like Greenmount, will have lined up different sponsors for every game. If games are lost then you lose out on that sponsorship money. You also have to think about the money clubs spent on food and drink and whether that will be compensated.

But we move on to the next game, which is a big one for us, travelling to last year’s Bolton League champions Egerton. We know very little about most teams in the GMCL, but the lads know all about Egerton’s quality. It is not our style to worry about the opposition, though, and we will be going all out to keep our winning start going.