Published: Thursday, 24th July, 2008 8:30am

Dunfermline Knights president hits out at 'nonsense' points rule

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Tom Gibson

A FUMING Tom Gibson fears Dunfermline Knights promotion bid could be decided by the weather rather than their skills with bat and ball.

The club president hit out at Cricket Scotland"s 'nonsense' rules after his side slipped six points behind Stoneywood-Dyce in the race for the league.

Their away match with Renfrew was, controversially, washed out with the award of just two points while their rivals picked up full points.

Mr Gibson said, 'Of course, in the nonsense way that Cricket Scotland works, you don"t replay the game and where a match is rained off you only get two points, whereas you get 10 for a win.

'What worries me is if we turn it around and we"re ahead going into the final game.

'If it rains in Dunfermline but not in Aberdeen we"re knackered and we"d lose out, not because of our ability on the cricket pitch but because of the weather.'

Knights started the day two points ahead of Stoneywood-Dyce but when they got to Renfrew they were told the covers had leaked and the pitch was wet.

Mr Gibson said, 'However both sides wanted to play, the umpire wanted to play and we had until 4pm to start the match, such are the rules.

'It was bright sunshine and windy, so it was drying out, but it all changed at 3pm when Renfrew"s groundsman turned up and persuaded their captain there was no way they should play on the wicket.

'So from a reduced 30-overs game it was then decided it wasn"t playable and it was cancelled.

'We had every chance of winning and to make it worse, we had been told Stoneywood-Dyce"s game in Edinburgh was off – and the weather was worse there than in Renfrew – but we later found out they"d played and won.

'Quite how they"d played I don"t know, they must have been swimming, but we"re now six points behind.

'I said some weeks ago that whoever is going to win the league, it"ll be down to the weather and unfortunately I may be proved right.'

The Knights will host Dumfries at McKane Park on Saturday, the only team to beat the Dunfermline side this season.