The Peter McDonald Premiership has opened an investigation into the circumstances which led to the round three fixtures between Bathurst St Pat's and Wellington being cancelled.
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St Pat's called off the games at Jack Arrow Oval on the morning of Sunday, May 12. Club president Gary Goldsmith said on Sunday the combination of player safety concerns and worries for the long-term viability of the playing surface after heavy rain led to the decision.
Bathurst received roughly 15.2 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours from 8am on Saturday, leaving the fields "waterlogged".
PMP chairman Linore Zamparini confirmed the Wellington Cowboys asked for the decision to be looked into.
"We're investigating the reports at the moment. From why it happened, to how it happened and when it happened," he said on Monday.
The matches have been postponed to an as yet unconfirmed date.
Wellington is seeking information on how the decision was made after seeing evidence of what they believe was a playable Jack Arrow surface.
Video footage of the ground on Sunday had been sent to Cowboys players and members.
"We just want to look into the verification," club president Graham Blackhall said.
"We do understand. There was heavy rain and everything there but, in the the vision I saw and information we got, it looked sort of playable."
![Jack Arrow Oval and (inset, clockwise from top) PMP chairman Linore Zamparini, St Pat's president Gary Goldsmith and Wellington president Graham Blackhall. Jack Arrow Oval and (inset, clockwise from top) PMP chairman Linore Zamparini, St Pat's president Gary Goldsmith and Wellington president Graham Blackhall.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/dCXpDgwTEgA52iNCe5aWtJ/398b6b01-fcf3-424e-abac-033485644736.jpg/r0_0_2000_1124_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Goldmsith had been in contact with Bathurst Regional Council since Saturday afternoon.
Council's sports and recreation manager, Mark Kimbel, is currently in Victoria, so the decision was left to St Pat's.
"Members of the St Pat's rugby league executive contacted council to discuss the condition of the fields prior to the scheduled game to be played on Sunday," council said in a statement.
"The St Pat's executive committee made the decision to cancel the games due to rain on Saturday and Sunday morning resulting in poor field conditions.
"The fields do not have sand silt drainage and were waterlogged from the rain."
Goldsmith, St Pat's junior club president Ben Selman and first grade assistant coach Kurt Hancock conducted the ground assessment on Sunday morning.
Selman said his club would always "err on the side of caution" as the field has been damaged by water in the past.
"While there weren't officially any ground closures from council, Gary was in contact with Mark Kimbel from Saturday afternoon once the rain was getting heavier, and then again Sunday morning," Selman said.
"We've seen that sort of damage before back at the end of 2022, which was quite a wet year. The seniors were hosting a semi-final and they ended up turning the field into mud, and we did get a fine from that.
"The flood happened not long after ... and we didn't end up having to pay that fine because there was more damage from that which needed to be fixed."
![The Jack Arrow Oval field on the morning of Monday, May 13. Picture by James Arrow The Jack Arrow Oval field on the morning of Monday, May 13. Picture by James Arrow](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/dCXpDgwTEgA52iNCe5aWtJ/4b0c27d4-0dfa-4a6c-8706-d90b019eb05a.jpg/r0_61_5472_3137_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
There are six fields at the Hereford Street complex in Bathurst. Two are run by St Pat's, two by the Bathurst Bulldogs rugby union club and two in the middle are for training or carnivals.
Bulldogs hosted eight games from juniors through to seniors on Saturday but their Ashwood Park surface has upgrade drainage.
"We were due to have our fields also done over summer but it came down to contractor availability," Selman said.
"They didn't get to it until February and that meant it was too late for our fields and they wouldn't be ready for the start of the competition."
The two middle fields have been closed for the past five weeks to complete the winter rye oversewing works.
St Pat's had initially considered splitting the four scheduled matches across their two fields.
"It was quite wet down each sideline, especially near the corners at each try line," Selman said.
"We went back and forth talking about the pros and cons for each decision and ultimately the call was made to postpone the games.
"We thought that if we did play that it would churn up the fields, which has happened before. There are fines from council which can run into the thousands of dollars if we do that.
"Given the amount of activity those grounds will see in the coming weeks we thought it best to postpone."