Bristol the latest in a history of doomed first-class fixtures for Yorkshire CCC

Yorkshire’s abandoned fixture against Gloucestershire was the 41st time that they have suffered that fate in first-class cricket (discounting the coronavirus-wrecked campaign of 2020), and the first time since the so-called “Beast from the East” washed out their opening match of the 2018 season against Essex at Headingley in the corresponding week in mid-April.

That game followed the abandonment of a university fixture against Leeds-Bradford MCCU at Headingley the previous week - the only time in Yorkshire’s history that they have lost consecutive first-class matches entirely to the weather.

Prior to that Essex contest, Yorkshire’s previous complete washout in Championship cricket had come as far back as 1987, against Sussex at Hastings.

Yorkshire first suffered this relatively novel fate at Lord’s in 1889, when they had been due to take on the MCC.

Two years later, both contests against the MCC were abandoned - the first at Lord’s and the second at Scarborough.

In 1939, Yorkshire’s match against the MCC at Scarborough was abandoned for an entirely different reason - the advent of war.

A day before the game was scheduled to begin, Germany invaded Poland, and Britain declared war on Germany two days later.

Tragically, the MCC side for that match at North Marine Road included Ken Farnes, the Essex and England fast bowler, who was killed in the war on active service.

Although the Yorkshire team was not listed, it would almost certainly have included the great Hedley Verity, the spin bowler who sadly met the same fate.

Yorkshire’s only previous abandoned first-class match against Gloucestershire was also at Bristol in August 1977.

The ground in those days was known as the Phoenix County Ground, and the competition the Schweppes County Championship.

It was presumably bottles of Schweppes all round for the players and a few games of cards as they watched the rain fall.