The 2002 local cricket season is fast becoming one of the most depressing in recent times. On Saturday the weather virtually decimated the league programme, in what is becoming an all-too-familiar story.

Amazingly it was the fourth Saturday afternoon of the last five that the weather has played its part as rain again swept eastwards during the early afternoon. The only consolation was that the rain prevented games outside of the Premier League from even getting underway, though after another week of predominantly wet weather most pitches, without covers, were in all probability anything but playable anyway.

The Cornwall county team have not been spared either as they had a fruitless trip to North Perrott, near Crewkerne on Sunday. The ECB 38 county game with the Somerset Cricket Board was called off at lunchtime without a ball being bowled. Incidentally it was Somerset's third complete washout in four ECB 38 County games this year. Cornwall's other group games saw rain bring an early finish at St Just and a delayed start at Camborne and there was the need to switch venues against Worcestershire in the C & G due to a waterlogged ground at St Austell.

The ECB Cornwall Premier League statistics to datemake dismal reading. Of 11 match days this season, six have now been affected by the weather. In addition to the opening day on 27th April a further five sets of games since Sunday May 12 have suffered.

In previous years it has not been uncommon to have a run of wet match days, but what has made this season unique is the timing of the rain. Of the 53 Premier games to date 23 of them have been ruined by the weather. Remarkably, though, only two of these games have failed to see a ball bowled with the rest all having to be abandoned during the afternoon as conditions deteriorated.

As a result teams have travelled on dry Saturday mornings only to be frustrated, none more than Mullion on Saturday who trekked all the way to Callington for just 80 minutes play.

Camborne had a wasted trip to St Buryan as the weather closed in in the far west before the 1 pm start time. Meanwhile, only 27 minutes play was possible at Falmouth where Grampound Road were the visitors. There was an hour's play at Troon (45 minutes more than last week) where Truro were the visitors while Menheniot and St Just fared well in comparison as 33 overs were possible at Fourgates in the east of the county.

In County Division I, where fixture secretaries still have rearrangements to contend with, the backlog is growing with 16 games at present to re-schedule. St Ives and Launceston are worst affected, each having four games to make up. Added to this, a dozen games have been abandoned as draws due to the rain, making only half of the games in the division this year being completed in full.

On Saturday the only game to start in County 1 was the derby at Launceston where 14 overs were possible against Werrington. The five other games were all called off including Helston's top of the table clash with Newquay and the Beacon v Perranarworthal game.

In the Western Divisions II to VII the story is just as depressing. Despite some games having already been re-played, a further 100 games have to be rearranged and the problems associated with putting out representative teams on Sundays overcome.

In addition to this around 70 games to date have been abandoned as draws. A number of teams, including Redruth, St Just II, Perranarworthal II, Penzance II, Heathcoats, Constantine II and Ludgvan II already are four games adrift.

Finally, on the subject of statistics, the belief that the Premier League only produces "bore draws"has not been substantiated with the facts this year to date. Interestingly of the 30 games completed 24 of them have produced outright wins whilst three of the six draws have been exciting finishes with one game tied and the margins in two others just 12 runs and 10 runs at the end. The overall ratio of drawn games to date is 10% lower than last year.