Pitch mown in middle of game

Wairarapa College will ask New Zealand Cricket to have their national Year 9 competition qualifying match against Rathkeale College at Rathkeale College last Friday replayed.

It's not that Wairarapa College are protesting about their seven-wicket defeat in the limited-overs fixture but the rather bizarre circumstances in which it was suffered.

Batting first, Wairarapa College struggled to get among the runs and were all out for 87, their cause not helped by the fact the grass on the outfield was longer than normally would be considered ideal. That situation took on even greater importance when a member of the Rathkeale College grounds staff mowed the outfield between the time the Wairarapa College innings ended and that of Rathkeale commenced.

Wairarapa College head of cricket Ashley Peterson admits to being shocked when told what had occurred and said he would be writing to New Zealand Cricket to have the match replayed.

"It's just not on ... you don't mow the outfield in a middle of a game," Peterson said. "Whether it made a difference to the end result we don't know, but that's not the point.

"If it was to be done, surely it should have been before the game or after it."

As well as advising New Zealand Cricket of the incident, Peterson will refer it to Wairarapa Cricket in the hope they will support Wairarapa College in their endeavours to reschedule the fixture.

Head groundsman at Rathkeale College Brian James was quick to quell any suggestion of foul play over when the outfield was mown.

"It's my fault. My fault entirely," James said.

"Nobody else is to blame, it all comes down to me."

James said a combination of poor weather on the Thursday and the need to have the outfield up to scratch for inter-club play on Saturday had left Friday as the only day on which the mowing could be done.

There were also staffing issues to consider, with no one available after 2pm to do the work.

James said his best intentions were to advise both teams of when the mowing would take place but he had not managed to do that before play started.

When the Wairarapa College innings ended earlier than expected, another staff member had taken the chance to start the mowing, also earlier than anticipated.

"There were a whole lot of things which went wrong and the buck stops with me," James said. "But we certainly weren't trying to give any team an advantage, no way."