Jimmy Adams opens up on Hampshire cricket.

Surely it can't get a mention next week but yet again we have had a week of fixtures badly affected by the weather. Groundsmen around the country have been putting their waterhogs' and super-soppers' (and other types of mechanical sponge) into overdrive.

I'm not sure if they've offended someone upstairs but it seems spooky sometimes - the sitting water is mopped up, the covers come off and suddenly another dark and nasty cumulonimbus comes along.

Our penultimate Twenty20 game at Chelmsford was called off after 16 overs - we were lucky to get those in as we played through some steady drizzle for the majority of our innings. At least, I suppose, we managed to avoid the partisan Essex crowd - everyone seems to want to field in the ring at Chelmsford That evening we travelled to Brighton, arriving pretty late at the hotel and after a bit of confusion we were checked-in by a spitting image of Lieutenant Gruber (of 'Allo 'Allo fame).

The lads had a good lie-in and a few hours in the city centre - greeted by some sunshine and a bit of sea air, James Bruce and myself were soon peckish again and headed off to find a recommended restaurant for lunch. We were even hungrier when we eventually found it and were soon joined by Chris Benham who hadn't quite made breakfast (comfy beds and good curtains apparently).

As we strolled back, a message came through asking us to pick up a football - obviously the previous day's touch rugby warm-up had proved far too controversial and football was required to appease the non egg-chasing majority. Despite playing cricket for a living, we are not happy unless we have had a good game of football to warm-up - this is made stranger still if you have ever seen us play However a change of warm-up did not prove to be a recipe for success as Sussex amassed 205 for 5, leaving us a tough task but we started pretty well thanks to Michael Brown (35) making his first one-day appearance this season. But wickets fell steadily with the introduction of spin and James Kirtley essentially wrapped it up, taking three wickets in four balls as our chase fizzled out.

So came to an end a very disappointing Twenty20 competition (unfortunately another year where we proved frustratingly inconsistent) - hopefully we will learn from our experience and put it to good use in the forthcoming Pro40 league.

In hindsight we could have done with Shaun Udal's experience and we obviously missed Dimi immensely but we still didn't do ourselves justice - we showed glimpses of our ability (Dave Griffiths started brightly, Billy Taylor bowled economically throughout and Sean Ervine returned to his clean-hitting best) but we weren't able to produce as a unit regularly enough.

The boys said good-bye to Adam Voges who returned home after his brief Twenty20 stay - he showed what an immense talent he is in a few games but a few rough decisions and shortened games meant that we didn't see the best of him. It was great to have him around and we all wish him well for the future and maybe we'll see him again soon.

In the meantime the Championship has started again and the game against Warwickshire looks to be heading towards a draw (once again due to the weather) unless the captains contrive a game for the last day. It's good to see James Tomlinson back in the side - he's not had much luck with a troublesome heel problem but Tommo's a captain's dream and deserves to have another chance.

In the 2nd XI, we lost all of last week's fixtures at the Rose Bowl but managed to get in some play at Horsham on a sticky' wicket where losing the toss proved pivotal (I lost it).

We played well below our best for two-thirds of the game and despite a great effort in the field at the end (Udal 2-9 off 9 overs) we lost by three wickets as Sussex chased 148.

A young Kent side got the backlash the next day at Canterbury where, on a used wicket, we batted well to post 248 (Kevin Latouf and Benny Howell hitting 50s) and our bowlers proved too good as Kent finished 40 runs or so short, nine wickets down.

We travel to New Road for Friday's Pro40 game but after the debacle of the recent Championship game held there, it might be wiser to pack Wellies instead of cricket spikes. Hopefully The Pears can change the venue or produce a miracle to dry the ground and we can enjoy a winning start to the competition.

With a fixture-less week coming up after Friday's game, I expect we'll have a week of blazing sunshine! At least the Rose Bowl's Nigel Gray and his band of merry groundsmen will, at last, be able to return to normality if that is the case.