WORCESTERSHIRE suffered more weather frustration as their three-day first-class fixture with Leeds-Bradford MCCU was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Umpires Steve O’Shaughnessy and Paul Pollard decided conditions were unlikely to improve during the next 24 hours and called off the fixture on the second morning.

Flagge Meadow was already saturated after the recent downpours and more overnight rain left puddles strewn across the ground.

It was Worcestershire’s first complete washout of a first-class fixture since the County Championship match with Kent at New Road in April 2016.

Worcestershire have seen six successive days of scheduled action fall victim to the elements.

After the two-day game with Somerset at Taunton was reduced to a one-day affair, the three days against Gloucestershire at Bristol were washed out.

The County’s players took to the grass nets at New Road on Sunday to keep ticking over in the build-up to the new campaign.

An academy-second XI two-day fixture is scheduled to take place at Royal Grammar School Worcester on Wednesday and Thursday if conditions improve.

Meanwhile, Brett D’Oliveira rejoins his team-mates today after a successful three weeks playing for the North versus the South and then the MCC against Champion County Essex in the Caribbean.