The picturesque village ground at Longparish gives an indication of how cricket grounds across the region have taken a hammering from the recent wet weather. 
Chris de Cani's photographs reveal a totally waterlogged outfield on which Parish hope to play a rescheduled Village Cup tie against Bramshaw on May 6.

Hayling Island and Portsmouth & Southsea are planning a re-enactment of the Hampshire Cricket League’s first ever match in 1973 – provided the elements don’t spoil it !
They are due to meet in a pre-season friendly at Hayling Park on Saturday (1pm) – 45 years to the day the HCL was born.
P & S, newly promoted to Southern Premier League Division 3 this season, won that original match by 16 runs, Steve Munday scoring the first half-century in Hampshire League history.
The late Noel Fisher bowled the first ball in that match 45 years ago. Current HL chairman Denis Emery faces a late fitness test on whether he can do same.
P & S lined up that day: S Munday, Elliott, Hellier, Winsor, Jones, Winter (capt), McIlwaine, Jenkins, Khan, Pennifold, Pratt. Tony Weld umpired and Mike Pepper was the scorer.
Hayling Island players of that era included: former Portsmouth footballers Brian Lewis and Harry Harris, Dick Payne, Alan Boniface, Don Loomes ,Gordon Poffley, Brian Parker, Greg Carson, Mike Fletcher, Tony and Mike Izzard, John Charlton, Dave Gorman, and Brian Cordell, whose son Rob (an XL Club member) still plays at the club.

Fareham & Crofton’s Bath Lane pitch topped the poll for the Hampshire Cricket League’s Most Improved Ground Award in 2017 – and promptly dedicated to Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown, the club’s long serving Octogenarian groundsman, who died shortly before the start of the season after a long illness.  
Tony, who has been at Fareham for over 50 years as a player, administrator, groundsman and virtually everything else, had been hugely instrumental in the laying of the new and re-sited main square at Bath Lane.  Tony had also been the HCL’s grounds advisor for many years.  It was the first time a club which prepares and maintains two cricket squares on the same ground had won the award.
Back (from left) Tony Tucker, MIke Steele, Chris Green, and (front) Les Webb and John Tucker are pictured sitting on Fareham & Crofton’s heavy roller all smiles after picking up the award.
They were taking a break from preparing Bath Lane for Fareham's opening pre-season warm-up match against Purbrook on Saturday, 1pm.

Winterslow, once a thriving village cricket club with two Saturday teams in the Hampshire League, a midweek side and 70 junior members, have been forced to quit the Hampshire League due to dwindling playing numbers.
It’s the second time Winterslow cricket has been forced to disband.
They originally folded in 2001, but reformed five years later on the bottom rung of the HCL regional divisions and really began to make progress after moving to an impressive state-of-the-art ground on the edge of the village.
It boasted a superb pavilion and clubhouse (pictured), a self-contained scorebox and practice facilities on the far side of the ground.
Winterslow celebrated a County Division 4 North championship in 2011, but gradually playing numbers dwindled, the second team was disbanded and now the whole club has gone – again.
Russell Rowe, a leading light in Winterslow’s reformation in 2006, explained: “As with many clubs the bulk of the work was left with the few and not the many and it became untenable.
“When a stand was made there were only a couple of willing volunteers who tried their best.
“Just think, in 2009, we attracted over 2,000 people to the ground for a fixture against the Lashings World XI, 500 of them sitting down for lunch in the marquee.
"Now it is a very sorry sight and a waste of an excellent facility,” he lamented.