Never mind Christmas, La Nina is threatening to ruin an entire summer.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For the fourth week in a row, the Cricket Illawarra and South Coast competitions are set to be washed out, with just four matches out of 24 completed between them so far this season.
Kembla Grange managed to push through the $1m The Gong event amid persistent showers, but that's only come after the previous provincial meeting was abandoned and Saturday's racing has faced the same fate.
After waiting months in COVID lockdown, sportspeople of all ages are now watching from the window again.
Bowls tournaments, already delayed for months this year, have been postponed as organisers hope for the best.
And while it's hardly the first soggy summer the Illawarra has seen, it could be the most consistently wet in history, given the Australian Bureau of Metorology has already declared the weather pattern may not relent until at least the end of January.
Lake Illawarra have swept all before them in the past four years, winning every trophy on offer in Twenty20, one and two-day cricket.
Captain Mark Ulcigrai knows there's never been a more important time to bank early points if they can play, as they did when they beat Kiama last Saturday.
"It's been pretty crazy," he said.
"I've been at Lake for 15 years and playing first grade for 20 and while I've seen plenty of wet seasons, I can't remember a more consistently wet start to a season like this.
"We've got a great curator and a surface that holds up pretty well, but what can you do when you're getting this kind of weather?
"And it's not just playing but training too, a lot of young guys have gone through the lockdown and look forward to playing and now we can't."
Other cricket associations, including in Wagga, are already considering reworking the entire season draw because of the consistent washouts.
Figtree Sports lawn bowls have been struck by the precipitation problem, with the club's major pairs competition among those postponed for the second time since COVID restrictions eased.
Meanwhile, racing trainers are eagerly awaiting the upgrade of the Kembla Grange surface and inside tracks to keep horses in work.
Kembla has been one of the most vulnerable metropolitan or provincial tracks in Australia to rain, with numerous abandoned meetings.
They have a synthetic Polytrack surface to do some training work on, but Racing NSW are set on pushing through with the upgrades, after the success of The Gong, won by home-town hero Count De Rupee.
"Whoever is controlling the weather certainly knows when Kembla is on," trainer Theresa Bateup said.
"It always seems to hit when we have a meeting on here."
But with the weather pattern spreading throughout most of NSW and beyond, Bateup admits it's hard to map out a plan for horses to race.
"You've got to have plans A, B, C, D and F sometimes," she said.
"There are horses that just don't handle the wet, others like the wet and then the meeting is called off anyway.
"It's a real balancing act and there are plenty of races to travel to, but it's happening everywhere at the moment.
"Having the track upgrade will allow us to have more consistent training to keep the horses up."
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support