I ventured up to Settle Cricket Club on Saturday for the game against Farnworth Social Circle. It is the first time I had been there and what a nice picturesque ground it is.

The playing surface had some interesting characteristics which added to the uniqueness of the ground and we all had a great view of the steam train chugging by later in the afternoon.

The day was fine and the first innings of FSC was straight forward. The rain came after the first over in the second innings and the umpires took the players off. Then, it is a case of setting a new target using Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculations - something the umpires and scorers as a team should work out together as they are the match officials. Unfortunately, rain came on at least four different occasions. Each time, overs were lost and new targets set which invited many comments from spectators nearby who did not understand what was going on with the DLS calculations.

At one point, there was a lengthy delay to help the scorer sort out the calculations and par score. It was very frustrating for the players who were stood around in brilliant sunshine, but essential the target and par score were agreed and play finally got under way with the par score up and running.

The par score should give the batting side an idea of what their score should be at a certain over in the game. The first concern was to see that 20 overs were played as that constitutes a game. That was reached and then more rain came and another target set. That target was not reached, but at the end of the game all players left the field - a lot of them with bemused looks on their faces as to what had really happened.

Training on the use of Duckworth Lewis was provided before the season started for both scorers and umpires, but not all clubs took advantage of this.

But with so many interruptions, it bears out the need for all match officials to be competent in the use of DLS.