Hampshire's big day was ruined when umpires Trevor Jesty and John Holder decided it would be impossible to stage the first ever scheduled match at their new £17 million ground at the Rose Bowl, West End.

Jesty and Holder, both former Hampshire players, surveyed the pools of water across the new pitch and decided play in the Benson & Hedges Cup match against Essex couldn't go ahead some 90 minutes before the game was due to start.

Hampshire captain Robin Smith said: "There was never any chance. The water has got everywhere and it would have been impossible which is a great shame because this was due to be such a memorable occasion in Hampshire's history."

Around 200 spectators had made their way to the new ground but left as soon as the announcement of the abandonment was made.

Hampshire chief executive Tony Baker said: "This is very sad because everything had been geared to this first match but it has been typical of our bad luck.

"The whole project has been fraught with disappointment in one form or another. We just hope that the pitch will have dried up by Friday when we're due to play here again but with more rain forecast even that can't be guaranteed.

"I feel sorry for our groundsman Nigel Gray who has put in hundreds of hours work on the new pitch but there was nothing he could have done and the story would have been the same if we were still at Northlands Road."

Gray added: "There was never any real chance even if it had been a dry day. The wet weather has been awful and I have not been able to work on the square as much as I would have liked."

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