A busy weekend

Old Peakfan is safely returned to the bosom of his family, after a weekend in God's Own County, followed by a delightful stop off in Sheffield to talk to the local cricket society last night.

It was a terrific evening, with a good crowd, plenty of laughs (in the right places!) and some interesting and well-considered questions. An early departure this morning saw me home just after midday, with a chance to catch up on the two big stories of the weekend.

Thank you to everyone at Sheffield for making it a memorable, thoroughly enjoyable evening. If you are interested in engaging me for a dinner or cricket society meeting, just drop me an email, or DM me on Twitter. I am not always available, but if I can, I will try to help out.

The big county news was that of a two-month contract for Tom Wood, which will see him almost certainly play for us in the Royal London One-Day Cup, as well as being available for three championship games. With Luis Reece, Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy involved in the 'other' tournament, there will be places up for grabs in the batting line-up of the senior side.

Tom would have hoped for a longer contract and it isn't clear if he will be available to play second team cricket in the earlier season. I hope he is, but after several seasons on the periphery of the club, no one could blame him from getting on with his life at this stage. If you are not on the staff, my understanding is that you get travel expenses and accommodation only to play in the second team, which works well for the club, but less well, of course, for someone who has bills to pay.

By the same token, this hard-earned opportunity will be all the more challenging if Tom goes from league cricket at the weekend to facing albeit weakened county attacks in the RLODC. It is not ideal, and yet it is an opportunity for all that.

Those involved in the Derbyshire Premier League know he can play. He's a big lad and perhaps not the most fleet-footed in the field, but he has a safe pair of hands and he just might make a decent fist of this. All he needs is a little luck and that opportunity, which to this point has been denied him by our strongest batting line up of the generation. A couple of good scores, or displaying a solid level of consistency might see him translate obvious talent into the most persuasive argument of all - runs in the score book.

As a long-time champion of the lad, I really hope it works out for him. Fairy tales sometimes do come true and his success would be special for him, his family and those who have believed in him over several prolific summers in second team and league cricket, as well as in the Australian first grade.

Warm congratulations, Tom!

The other news was the government advice that Kolpak contracts could be concluded at the end of the coming summer, which always seemed a likely consequence of Brexit. According to reports, this is regardless of the length of deal that a player has, but I would be very surprised were this not challenged en bloc by those plying their trade under that collective banner.

Common sense dictates to me that players should, at the very least, be allowed to fulfil existing contracts, before their counties have to make a decision on whether they are worthy of an overseas deal. Word is that as a 'softener' to counties, two overseas will be allowed once more, which will be easier for some than others. We could theoretically have Ravi Rampaul and Leus du Plooy, whereas Hampshire would need to choose between Kyle Abbott, Fidel Edwards and Rilee Rossouw.

I suspect this story will 'bubble under' over the summer, but I don't yet expect the Kolpaks to be worried at this stage, when hardly any terms of the agreement are known, period.

There is a subsidiary question over those playing here on European and British passports, of course, with Michael Cohen in the latter category. One would assume that British passports would be a green light to continue, whereas European ones may be more problematic.

It is a minefield and a mess. Good luck to whoever has to work this one out....