The North West Cricket League experienced yet another rain-affected Saturday - one of these days we will wake up to sunshine and it will stay fine all day.

All Premiership games were able to start at some part of the day and there were some low scores and exciting finishes.

A discussion point has arisen over the last few weeks about the action of some bowlers - especially when they bowl a quicker ball. Is it a throw or not? This has been a matter of controversy for years.

In simple terms, a bowler’s delivery action involves transferring his/her arm from behind the body to a point in front and releasing the ball. This transfer is usually with the arm close to the bowler’s head. The ball must be above shoulder height before its released as if not this constitutes under-arm bowling, which is unfair.

It is the last part of the delivery swing that is crucial to decide if it was a throw or not. This starts when the arm reaches shoulder height behind the bowler, continues as the arm is brought over and lasts until the ball is delivered. During that time the bowler’s elbow joint must not straighten or partially straighten. Some bowlers bowl with the arm bent all through their delivery swing, which is fine if it doesn’t straighten, while others will attempt to put in a quicker ball and it looks as if the action has changed. Some have such a weird action that it needs a further looking at. It is entirely up to the umpires to decide and often the umpire at square-leg has a better view of the bowler’s action.

What does the umpire do if he suspects the bowler is throwing? According to MCC law, he calls and signals ‘no-ball’ and cautions the bowler - and if he does it again then the umpire will inform the captain he is to be suspended for the rest of the innings and report it to the league following the usual procedure of informing the batters at the crease and batting captain, etc.

However, local leagues usually have a ruling that ‘no-ball’ is not called unless it is obvious, but a suspect action is reported to the club and league for further investigation, which means videoing the action or the bowler being watched by coaches to help correct any possible transgression of the law.