Rain Disrupts League Games for the Third Consecutive Week

Rain Disrupts League Games for the Third Consecutive Week
Heavy rain washed away most of the scheduled Premier League games last weekend June 11, 2016. The beautiful Craigengower Cricket Club green became a pond under the downpour. (Sum Lam)
6/16/2016
Updated:
6/16/2016

HONG KONG—A third consecutive weekend of heavy rainstorms washed away more Premier League games last Saturday, forcing the League Panel to impose an emergency rule to extend the deadline of rescheduling games to ease the already congested fixtures.

While teams are still trying to finish the games delayed or interrupted by the poor weather over the previous two weekends, the continuing rain last Saturday, June 11, forced the closure of almost all outdoor greens, postponing more games. Of the 68 games scheduled, only 20 were played over the weekend.

After the weekend there are 48 men’s and 22 women’s games waiting to be played. In view of the massive number of games postponed, the League Panel has announced an extension of the deadline for playing the backlog of games to August 1, instead of the usual 22 days after the originally scheduled day.

However the League Panel also urged the teams to play their rescheduled games as soon as possible to avoid being penalized for missing this deadline.

The only Division 1 games that went ahead over the weekend were played between the Police and Island Lawn Bowls Club (ILBC) at the artificial green of Police Sports and Recreation Club.

ILBC, who narrowly avoided relegation last season, lost the game 7:1 and are rooted at the bottom of the table. Now they have played more games than all other teams in the division but are five points below the team above them.

The Police team moved to mid-table after the win.

This week in Lawn Bowls

Premier League matches continue this Saturday June 18, starting at 2:30pm, at all greens in Hong Kong.

Claudius lam is an officer of the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.