RAIN CAUSING SERIOUS LOSSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1931, Page 9

RAIN CAUSING SERIOUS LOSSES.

CRICKETERS LOOK FOR ENGLISH SUMMER SOON

The adverse effect of the rainy spell in England on the finances of the New Zealand cricket tour is assuming serious proportions, but officials of the New Zealand Cricket Council express the hope that matters will brighten shortly in view of May and June being the worst two months of the English summer. It is hoped that the wet weather experienced in the last month or so will not be repeated. Certain financial results of the tour to date have been received in New Zealand, but no disclosures are to be made at present. It is stated that even when the state of the weather permitted play, the coldness of the conditions militated against good attendances. It was natural that the weather should have seriously interfered with the gate-tak-ings that might have been expected from the games if the conditions had been fine.

“It is only natural that the wet weather must have seriously interfered with the gate-takings,” stated Mr E. R. Caygill. “ The financial results received so far are purely a matter for the New Zealand Council.” The New Zealanders’ last tour of England, in an exceptionally bad season in 1927, resulted in a loss of about £4OOO.

The rain, which has become more or less of a habit, is affecting the gates in another direction, in that it has prevented nearly all the games from reaching finality. In the first nine matches of the tour rain fell in every case except against Leicestershire, which also resulted in a draw. In the following match, against Middlesex, New Zealand met their first defeat. The latest advice is that the game against the Minor Counties has had to be abandoned owing to wet weather. Best Attendance 12,000.

Rain has interfered with play in twelve of the fourteen matches played to date, resulting in most of them being drawn. This has no doubt robbed the tour of some of its interest from the spectators’ point of view. The financial depression is also likely to have had an adverse effect on the gates. On two occasions rain at the week-end robbed the New Zealanders of good Saturday crowds.

The attendances have not been stated in all cases, but of those mentioned the 12,000 who attended the Middlesex match constitute the record. Mention is made of the size of the crowds in the following instances:—

May 6—v. Essex: Small attendance. May 9—v. Leicestershire: 6000. May 10—v. Leicestershire: Moderate. May 12—v. Leicestershire: Small. May 14—v. Hampshire: Moderate. May 16—v. Marylebone: 2000. May 21—v. Worcestershire: Good. May 25—v. Glamorganshire: 4000. May 30—v. Middlesex: 12,000. June 4—v. Cambridge: Poor. June 6—v. Somerset: 4000. June 15—v. Derbyshire: 3000. (Scores in the match New Zealand v. Minor Counties appear on page 1.)