Just one over bowled from five games was Sunday’s story in the Hoofdklasse, as torrential rain across the western half of the country played havoc with the programme.

Four matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled, and only in Schiedam was it possible to get a start, Hermes making 6 from an over from Excelsior’s Ali Haider before the rain came on again and the teams accepted the inevitable.

With three rounds of matches still to be completed it is now certain that the competition will extend into September for the first time in years. Two full rounds are already scheduled for next weekend, and the games originally due to take place this Sunday will now presumably be reprogrammed for 2 September.

But any more rain, or the need for play-offs to decide championship or relegation issues, could push the programme on to 3 September, or even the following weekend.

In retrospect, there must now be questions about the wisdom of programming the first rain day as late as 8 July, and only two such days before mid-August. With seven matches rained off before the end of May and a whole round cancelled on 25 June, an earlier start to catching up on the backlog would have given competition managers a better chance of completing the programme before the end of August.

Under the competition’s rules clubs are only required to have grounds available until 31 August, and after that date the demands of football and hockey frequently cause problems in finding grounds. Furthermore, coaches often have commitments for pre-season training in their home countries, and few will have arranged to stay far into September.

In the longer term, the rules regarding rain may need a thorough rethink. There is a separate case for introducing a form of Duckworth/Lewis calculation for rain-affected matches, and this would permit a reduction of the minimum length of innings from 35 overs to 20. It is also arguable that if this were to be the case, replays could be abandoned altogether, teams sharing the points in the event of rained-off matches, as is usual elsewhere.