IT might be third time lucky for the McDonald’s Tamworth Twenty20 Premier League tonight.
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The weather has played havoc with the competition, with the last two Friday nights washed out.
Tonight the TDCA will try for a third time to get the second round underway.
“Barring any more rain it’s going ahead,” TDCA president Richard Bullock said yesterday.
There was concern yesterday morning’s rain might have washed the game out but Bullock said that council was getting on the grounds late yesterday.
“The wind has been very helpful,” Bullock said.
It’s helped dry out the grounds.
“They’ll get Riverside 1 and Riverside 2 up and then work on the other grounds,” he said.
“Having a look at the radar there doesn’t look to be anything coming our way.”
The competition is at an important juncture.
McDonald’s are two wins clear out in front, with Steggles, Halpin’s Plumbing and The Albert all on a win.
“This could be make or break whether they make the one and two final or the three or four final,” Bullock said.
Steggles and Halpin’s will match up in the Riverside 1 game, with The Albert facing McDonald’s in the other.
It’s not the first time the Twenty20 has been affected by rain.
“Last year we didn’t have a washout in the Twenty20,” Bullock said.
“But about three or four years ago we had a year like this where it rained every Thursday or Friday.”
Saturday games have also been washed out the last two weeks.
After three games of two-dayers, the competition shifts back into one-day mode, with North and South clashing at Riverside 1, Old Boys and Bective-East at Scully Park and West and City clashing at No.1 Oval.
Bullock said all the players and umpires would wear black armbands in honour of Ian Southwell, who passed away last month.
Southwell gave a lot to Tamworth cricket and there will also be a minute’s silence before the start of the games.
The cricket clubhouse is named after Southwell and is set to undergo a few renovations thanks to a $20,000 State Government grant.
The money will be used, Bullock said, to put new carpet into Cricket House and renovate the toilets.
The Tamworth 1st XI and 2nd XI also have important games on Sunday.
Not so much in terms of the context of the War Veterans and MA Connolly Cups, with Tamworth in the War Veterans Cup at least well out in front, but as a warm-up to Country Cup and Country Shield fixtures the following weekend.
