Hazy days of summer: bushfire smoke and extreme heat continue to affect sport calendar

Friday's Albury race meeting was postponed until Monday (conditions permitting) and the smoke haze continued to cause disruption for cricket's Country Week junior representative carnival on the border, where two of Wagga's three scheduled junior teams were unable to play.

Saturday's games in Wagga have already been canned amid forecasts of a 45C day.

"They have all been cancelled for Saturday," Wagga coordinator Simon Rosengren said.

"They're playing a number of T20 games on the Sunday to try to get two games in for the sides.

"But that's if they go ahead. Obviously with the forecast and outlook for the bushfires there quite possibly could be more smoke."

Wagga Cricket had already cancelled its last round before Christmas due to extreme temperatures.

It's the new reality for sport with two months of summer still to come.

But Rosengren points out the bushfire fallout is something else.

"It's all a pretty new phenomena, the air quality," he said.

"I was up in Bathurst in the middle of December for NSW Country Colts and we lost two days of the five days of cricket there due to poor air quality.

"That's the first time I've come across it. I know we've had devastating bushfires before but this is the first time I've run into it, ever."

Various harness racing meetings have been abandoned in NSW throughout the past month due to the haze, including at Young on Christmas Eve.

Wagga greyhounds went ahead in a Friday morning time slot but the gallops industry has now missed three Southern District race meetings in four days this week.

On Friday afternoon, Wagga trainer Gary Colvin was in a truck headed to Tumbarumba to help move horses, having earlier sent offers of help to those in bushfire stricken areas.

Simon Rosengren, who is also a director at the Murrumbidgee Turf Club, reiterated that the safety and suffering of those directly affected by fires remains everyone's primary concern.

Sports events are a far lower priority but those involved still have to manage them.

In Canberra, national soccer and basketball games have been cancelled and the capital's International tennis event moved to Bendigo.

In the Riverina, the racing codes and cricket could continue to face disruption.

"In no way do we reduce the significant event that's occurring and creating it," Rosengren said.

"It's just the flow-on effect, that it's affecting a lot of other things too."

Wagga's under 14 cricket team did have some enjoyment at Country Week.

Not only did they manage to get a full game in on Friday, they enjoyed a 31-run win against Wangaratta Blue. Beau Edmunds led the way, top-scoring with 45 runs.

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