They may have hurricanes, typhoons and tornados (what is the difference between them?)in the Caribbean but I bet none of their grounds were under 4 feet of water just six weeks before the first game.

The County Ground seems to have been the centre of media attention over the last two days as a result of the picture of our flooded ground appearing on the front page of the Daily Express on Wednesday.

And when was the last time anybody saw the two King's School rowing eights racing each other across what is normally a cricket square followed by the coach in a motor boat!

One of the Club Members, Andrew Thomas, is an expert on the history of flooding at the ground. He tells me the record flood was on 20th March 1947 (I wonder how many people can recall the floods in that year?) and just 42 days later the County took on and beat the South African touring team - the only County to do so that season. 1947 then proved to be one of the hottest and driest on record. Our first game is 41 days away so all is not lost yet!

This is the fourth flood of the winter but at least we have been floodless since February 2004. In fact the longest period without a flood at the Couny Ground is 4 years and 3 days between October 1903 and November 1907.

Perhaps the most worrying of all the statistics we have is the fact that the ground has actually flooded seven times during the season, the last time in May 1969. It affected two matches with the game against Middlesex starting on May 31st having to be moved to Dudley at the last minute 'owing to severe flooding'. Twice the ground has been flooded in June - once in 1924 and once in 1955. In 1924 even the Three Counties Agricultural Show on Pitchcroft had to abandoned!

Let us hope the next six weeks bring warm and sunny weather in both the Caribbean and in Worcester. I suspect all the groundsmen over there will be avidly keeping their eye on the weather radar screens, something our own Head Groundsman, Tim Packwood, doesn't normally have to worry about during the winter.

The warm up games are under way and the real competition starts on Tuesday. Stock up the fridges.