After a prolonged period of dry weather we have hit a period where rain is a daily feature on the forecast. Heavy overnight rain is expected and showers may well reappear mid Saturday afternoon. This may affect some pitches and outfields with captains reminded of their duty of care to the players and asked to pay particular attention where bowlers are running from grass on to an artificial pitch. Captains should also check the wet weather guidelines and base any decisions on the conditions of the ground, not the state of the match.
In Grade 1 the top 4 play the bottom 4. League leaders Bon Accord are at Allan Park to play Cults with fingers crossed that the overnight rain doesn’t rule that one out.
Gordonians host Grampian on the artificial at Countesswells so that game may survive. Akhlaq Bashir and Shaunak Bhatta are added to the Gordos team, with Sree Devadas held in reserve until Sunday.
It’s a noon start at Harlaw for the AberGreen v Master Blasters game with the latter strong favourites to beat the bottom team.
Mannofield skipper Rahul Chandu takes a strong side to Links to face Crescent who have been playing better than their league position suggests.
Grade 2 leaders AGSFPs are at Inverdee to face bottom side 2nd Grampian. AGSFPs have all rounder Rob Swiergon back as they look to recover from the defeat to Portcullis last week, but they are without Karan Anand and George Gill.
Banchory go to Groats Road to play 2nd Knight Riders who include Siva Palaniappan looking for a bit of batting form after a couple of low scores in Grade 1.
The Myron-Petrie brothers are in the Huntly 1sts so Jim Lodge continues to fill a gap in the Huntly Grade 2 side as Methlick head to Castle Park.
Portcullis will do well to get their game to the starting blocks at Duthie Park against 2nd AberGreen, and the same may apply at Ellon with Fraserburgh due to visit.
Grade 3 leaders 2nd Master Blasters would have been hoping for a comfortable day out enjoying the sights of the River Ythan, but Lairds has already been declared waterlogged from the prolonged rain in the Methlick area, so both teams have the day off.
2nd Gordonians have a strong line up ready to head to Stonehaven, but that game will be touch and go if the overnight rain is heavy.
Inverdee has handled any previous rain quite well so the 2nd Mannofield game against Crathie has a better than average chance of starting. The experienced Rene Van Oorschot steps in to offer pearls of wisdom to the Mannofield youngsters.
Stoneywood Dyce take on Dunecht at Rubislaw in the other Grade 3 match.
The SPCU North East Championship fixtures could be completely wiped out if the BBC forecasts for each ground prove to be correct. Everywhere has heavy rain forecast overnight, and whilst all the grounds will have covers on, any uncovered used pitches on the square could retain the water. Any that do get started might not last long.
Kinloch are due at Countesswells to play Gordonians who are without Himanshu Saraswat and Prashant Wig. Aberdeenshire are very close to full strength as league leaders Arbroath are due to travel up. It’s a long trip from Huntly to Falkland especially if the potential thunderstorms hit the minute you arrive at the ground. Both sides look like they have regular players on holiday.
2nd Forfarshire have a short drive to Forfar to play Strathmore, both sides looking relatively strong, and Perth Doocot will be boosted by the return of Safyaan Sharif as his previous club Freuchie visit.
The Eastern Premier League fixtures look very tasty with many of the Scotland stars returning from the World Cup qualifiers. Spare a thought for the bowlers as Michael Leask is back for Forfarshire who are at home to RH Corstorphine who include Brandon McMullen and George Munsey.
Chris Greaves, Jack Jarvis and Preston Mommsen are added to the Grange line up as Ali Evans comes in for Carlton.
Stoneywood Dyce are due at Stewart’s Melville and Watsonian don’t have far to go to play Heriot’s.
No rain dances at Meigle as they will be very keen to get played at home to a slightly understrength Falkland.
The Aberdeenshire Cup semi final between Gordonians and Grampian is due to start at 1pm at Countesswells on Sunday, with the quarter final between Crescent and Bon Accord due to be played at Links. For the meteorologically pessimistic, the reserve date for both Aberdeenshire Cup semi finals is 13th August with the reserve date for the quarter final being the 23rd July at Inverdee.