a ripple through our recreational umpires, like a cricket bag dragged through a carpark puddle.Theres another impediment to a laissez-faire a

Faced with uncertainty, the human mind devises narratives to feign predictability. Uncertainty comes in various forms - from fundamental questions such as Why are we here? to more humdrum ones - Will I get wet later?Humdrum it may be but, dealt a 13-week season, impinged upon by football, school trips and family holidays, knowing whether it will rain later has become one of the determining considerations of my life as a junior cricket organiser. Yesteryear, when the weather was really significant, we would consult seaweed, or the posture of cattle. Nowadays, theres a very modern indicator of coming rain: text messages.It starts in the late morning. Parents: Will tonights game be rained off? Im out of town, so would be good to know. I understand the need to drive out uncertainty, the modern middle-class parents desire for the one quiet evening at home that a cancellation can deliver. The thing is, Im out of town as well.Six years into this role and I am also very clear that if we decided whether matches in Englands north-west should be played based on weather conditions at 11am and forecasts for the early evening, our youngsters would play very little cricket at all. The UKs temperate maritime climate, with very few climatic extremes, means that the weather is a state of mind as much as it is an objective fact. For cricket enthusiasts in this damp region, there is a pragmatism about conditions: Well start if its not raining (hard) and carry on if its not pouring.Recently, I drove through heavy traffic and heavier rain to a friendly local club. As I pulled onto the driveway that skirts the grounds southern boundary, I saw a heron wading on the outfield. But the rain had stopped. Our hosts put the kettle on, joined me in conference with the neutral umpire and agreed wed give it half an hour - but would mark the boundary anyway (cordoning off the wading bird reserve at wide long-on).Thanks to the practicality of our hosts and the shared view that its only a game that nobody gains from cancelling, our teens played on. Two-hundred-and-seventy runs in 34 overs showed it was a batters night and that weather is, within parameters, a state of mind.To agree that its only a game may be a luxury thats being depleted. Umpires have a responsibility for ensuring the safety of playing conditions. Thats well understood. An opposition first team player umpiring an Under-13 game once tried to bring the teams off in light rain. His legitimate concern was that the boys didnt have spikes and were slipping. The opposition coach and I walked out to the middle to assess conditions. The boys were loving it, performing sliding stops and soft-landing dives. No more long run-ups, the other coach and I decreed before returning to the scorebox, out of sight of the parents fretting over laundry.With that responsibility placed on the umpires comes an opportunity for litigation. A case has already reached court (Bartlett v ECB Coaches Association, 2015). A fielder was injured on a wet outfield after having argued with the umpire that the game shouldnt take place. The court, in this example, dismissed the claim against the umpire, perhaps noting that the fielder, concerned about the conditions, had nonetheless attempted a sliding stop. The very fact of this legal case, though, will cause a ripple through our recreational umpires, like a cricket bag dragged through a carpark puddle.Theres another impediment to a laissez-faire approach to the weather and junior cricket. Its the hierarchy of needs within the club. Ten-year-olds share the same square as the clubs senior teams. Allowing an Under-11 match to go ahead and damage the first XI track is heresy. The balance is tightest on a Friday night, when the pitch will have little time to recover before the weekends big fixture.On many a Friday afternoon, watching drizzles pathetic, stubborn dampening of the street outside my office window, my duty to play and play on, has shunted up against a wish for it to just rain properly and put us out of this misery. I check my iPhone weather app with the compulsion normally reserved for the Test score. The teasing of rain specks on the windscreen continues on the drive to the ground. The texts are coming in thick and fast. Were on, I announce with fingers on keypad when I get to the ground and find the moisture hanging in the air, making the grass greasy, the square so inviting for a young cricketer to skid across and wreck tomorrows track.As long as it doesnt get any heavier, I explain to opposition, umpire, parents. We dig out bar towels for the fielding team to dry the ball that will still swell like a raisin in a Moroccan stew. Bats left carelessly on the grass will lose their sharp report. The fielders hair, that started in a variety of self-conscious shapes, becomes uniformly flattened on their scalps. Meanwhile, the pitch for our first teams match takes on more water. Should I or shouldnt I just call the game off? I can cope with the rain; its the drizzle I cant stand.This season, Ive been spared the Friday game of cat and mouse with the elements, with the matches I organise occurring on Wednesday evenings. But back in May, we played at home on the eve of a county second XI match at our ground. This was a prestigious fixture, for which we wanted the ground and in particular the square, looking its best. We got under way with grey clouds occluding the sun in the west. Club officials, looking more often at the sky than the play, stood on the boundary. Soon after the second innings started, the clouds began to leak and the covers made it to the pitch before the players reached the pavilion. Three of us stood sentry in the middle, heads cocked upwards like men have done for millennia. Then each of us 21st century men would look down and consult our smart phones, two of which told us it was raining and one claimed sunshine. Meanwhile, the square, the covers, the outfield, our heads and shoulders were rapidly filling in white as snow fell.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with Inbox in the subject line. Adidas Shoes Clearance Canada .C. -- Calgarys Kevin Koe did it the hard way again. Discount Adidas Shoes Canada . But now that hes in the NHL, the Calgary Flames centre showed big improvement in that department by scoring the winner in the eighth round of a 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. http://www.wholesaleadidasshoescanada.com/ . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. Wholesale Adidas Shoes Canada . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short. Adidas Shoes Canada Sale . Oyama had six birdies and two bogeys at Kintetsu Kashikojima in the event also sanctioned by the Japan LPGA Tour. "I have been having this neck ache thats been affecting my golf recently," Oyama said. A future ruling by the NHL looms large over the expansion-draft decisions of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Right winger?David Clarkson is among the five players listed on the official protection list that the league distributed to all 31 clubs last month.Thats because Clarkson has a no-movement clause, just like teammates Brandon Dubinsky, Sergei Bobrovsky, Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell. All five are on the list of 66 names who must be protected for the expansion draft -- which is June 17 -- unless they waive their no-movement clause.Clarkson, 32, hasnt played since March 11 and is once again on long-term injured reserve. He has three more years on his deal after this season at a $5.25 million cap hit. Needless to say, the last thing the Jackets want to do is use one of their protected list spots on him.Teams have two format choices for their protected lists: either 7-3-1 (seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie) or 8-1 (eight skaters regardless of position and a goalie).At some point, the NHL will rule on injured players such as Clarkson, Nathan Horton (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Ryane Clowe (New Jersey Devils), all three of whom are on the list of 66 protected players.Expansion draft rules have provisions allowing us to accord certain contracts different treatments in cases where a player is suspected of having career-ending injuries, deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to ESPN.com last month.That doesnt mean, of course, the ruling will be the same for all three players. Clowe is on the Devils coaching staff now, so his player career is clearly over. It seems almost impossible that Horton will play again. So the Devils and Leafs might get favorable rulings there. As for Clarkson, who knows? Maybe hell play again, maybe not.In any case, should the NHL for whatever reason rule that the Jackets still must protect Claarkson, Columbus will have to hope it can convince him to waive his no-movement clause.ddddddddddddOr what if the new Vegas franchise actually wanted Clarkson -- for no other reason than using his cap hit would help the Golden Knights reach the minimum payroll number the league has set? Its food for thought.Lets have some fun here and predict who will be on Columbus protected list while assuming, for now, that somehow it wont have to protect Clarkson. Well go with the 7-3-1 format route:ForwardThe Jackets must protect Hartnell, Foligno and Dubinsky, per their no-move clauses. Id also protect?Brandon Saad, Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg and Boone Jenner. That would expose the likes of William Karlsson, Josh Anderson and Matt Calvert.Now, I suppose you also have to ask, what to do with Hartnell, 34, who has two more years on his deal after this season at a $4.75 million cap hit? Do you ask him to waive his no-move (or