![Bruce Cousins will be working tirelessly to make sure Wade Park is ready for cricket season as soon as possible. Picture by Riley Krause. Bruce Cousins will be working tirelessly to make sure Wade Park is ready for cricket season as soon as possible. Picture by Riley Krause.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/5542e3cc-a986-4a81-aec8-58b37c01e4cb.JPG/r0_0_4928_3263_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Bruce Cousins has been the Wade Park curator for "donkey's years", but 2022 may just be the wettest pre-season he has ever dealt with.
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Round one of the Bathurst and Orange Inter District Cricket competition was meant to begin on Saturday, October 8.
Normally for Mr Cousins, this would be plenty of time between the end of footy season and the start of the cricket competition to get a pitch prepared; not this year though as all five games were canned prior to Saturday.
"We're usually pushing to get it ready by the second week of October, but we've always been able to do that," he said.
"This year has been a bit of a struggle because of the weather conditions."
The last year that comes close to the amount of rainfall Mr Cousins has seen this close to cricket was back in 2016.
Just a few weeks prior to the commencement of that year's cricket season, Wade Park played host to the Group 10 grand finals in what was a waterlogged affair.
![PREMIER LEAGUE: Mudgee Dragons completed a fairytale season by defeating Orange CYMS 14-10 in the Group 10 grand final. Photo: JUDE KEOGH PREMIER LEAGUE: Mudgee Dragons completed a fairytale season by defeating Orange CYMS 14-10 in the Group 10 grand final. Photo: JUDE KEOGH](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/9d93b914-efa8-4cb0-8f43-a8a8ced31a05.jpg/r0_0_3367_2005_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In the month of September, 2016, Orange experienced 271.8mm of rainfall, with more than 50mm coming within the first week of October as well.
In comparison, Orange experienced 147.4mm of rain during September this year, while the first ten days of October saw 75mm come down. The average rainfall in Orange for September is 80.6mm, while October's is 71.3. These figures date back to 1996.
While the overall numbers might not match up with the heights of 2016, Mr Cousins said there was one thing that made this time around worse.
"It has just been prolonged this year. It's lasted longer throughout the year," he said.
"It's been a bit difficult because we've got a lot of cloudy days, the temperatures aren't warm enough for the couch grass. That's where we're having a struggle this year."
All of this has meant that Mr Cousins has had to change up the way he prepares the Wade Park wicket.
"This week I started on Tuesday, but normally I would start on a Thursday to prepare a wicket for the weekend," he said.
"You're starting a lot earlier to give it enough time for it to dry out."
![Bruce Cousins will be working tirelessly to make sure Wade Park is ready for cricket season as soon as possible. Picture by Riley Krause. Bruce Cousins will be working tirelessly to make sure Wade Park is ready for cricket season as soon as possible. Picture by Riley Krause.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/981753ff-21dc-420c-9ede-57d13f15b298.JPG/r0_230_4928_3263_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
This particular weekend will provide more difficulties. There is more rain forecast for Thursday night and Friday morning, with the first of the Royal Hotel Cup qualification games scheduled for Friday night as well. Then on Saturday, Orange City are due to take on Bathurst City Colts.
When asked if Wade Park would be a bowl first wicket for the first few weeks of the season, Mr Cousins said with a smile: "You would think so."
"With less grass, it's hard to tell what kind of wicket it will be. You'd imagine the bowlers would have a few smiles on their faces.
"The tarp will be on Thursday afternoon. With the weather forecast, I won't be finished with preparation, but I've got to cover it because it's going to rain Thursday night.
"Then we'll have to see how much rain we get and if the outfield is too wet or whatever, then cricket won't go ahead. But if we don't get too much rain, I think we may be able to get on it Friday night."
So with all of this in mind, how would the 20 year veteran describe the start to the cricket campaign?
"It's been a pretty depressing season so far," he said.
"This year is really hard. You're just juggling all the time. You've got other stuff to do and you try to do that, but then you've got three days wet and two days dry to do something, four days wet and one day to do something else."
A ground inspection on Thursday morning saw the pitch in good condition, although it was a little on the soft side. So how will the rain impact the prospect of Saturday games moving forward? We'll just have to wait and find out.