Weather forces county cancellations

Late, late news from Nottinghamshire - the U18 section of the NLD tournament has been cancelled due to waterlogged pitches at Mellish, but so far as I am aware the U15 tournament at Paviors is still on. Having spent the day in these parts I have to say that I am not remotely surprised that Mellish is off as driving in that area was not much fun.

Elsewhere county U12 training at Hitchin has also been cancelled, while the England A international against Italy (see below) has already been moved to the Old Deer Park, Richmond - and may still be cancelled if conditions deteriorate. A decision will be made early tomorrow morning. In the meanwhile last night, before the monsoon hit, the England Development team beat Italy A 20-10 (report here). 

Its really been an awful first half of the season for rugby tournaments. Rochford, Beckenham, Essex County and now NLD all cancelled - for different (generally unavoidable) reasons - but it makes it all the more important that the events planned for spring 2009 go ahead. 

The only main threat there at the moment remains the Not-The-Rfuw National 10s, but lots of work is going on behind the scenes to come up with a formula that Twickenham will accept so that that event can go ahead, and the weather should have improved a bit by the time we get to the sevens tournaments in May!