What a difference an hour makes, especially when the Dutch weather is part of the story: the three matches which started at two o’clock on Sunday all followed a similar course and were played to a finish, whereas those which began later were disrupted by rain, one of them ending in abandonment.

All of this, of course, had its effect on the table, although some clubs will have to wait until next week to discover whether their prospects were improved or harmed by the intervention of Pluvius.

HCC, in particular, had worked their way into a winning position at Craeyenhout, batting on through splatters of rain to reach 177 for six off their 20 overs.

HBS had reduced them to 55 for four at one stage, of which Boris Gorlee had made an 18-ball 30 before Julian de Mey removed him, adding the scalp of Clayton Floyd in his next over, but then Mark Wolfe (35 from 25) and Tonny Staal added 77 for the fifth wicket.

After Wes Barresi had Wolfe smartly stumped by Martijn Scholte Hidde Overdijk joined Staal for a final flourish, Staal finishing with an unbeaten 44 and Overdijk smacking 35 from just 15 deliveries before becoming De Mey’s third victim.

Before HBS could begin their reply the rain became heavier and the covers came on, and they stayed on until the match was abandoned; the point HCC picked up from the No result should be enough to see them into the semi-finals, but defeat by Excelsior next week and a combination of the ‘wrong’ results elsewhere could still see them miss out.

The other match disrupted by the weather was at Westvliet, but in this case Voorburg gained full advantage from the position they had established by reducing Rood en Wit to 52 for six inside 13 overs.

After a long delay Voorburg were set a target of 25 in five overs, and Carl Mumba and Henry Melville needed only nine deliveries to knock off the runs and take the points. 

The most significant match of the day was in the Amsterdamse Bos, where Punja-Ghausia restricted VRA to 120 for nine, 58 of those runs coming from the bat of Jack Cassidy.

Darsh Abhinay had the next highest score with 19, but with Saqib Zulfiqar claiming three for 20 the home side’s innings never really fired, and Punjab were able to produce a measured response, winning by seven wickets with 14 deliveries to spare.

Shoaib Minhas made 35 before he was run out, Sharad Hake having given VRA some hope by removing Musa Ahmad and Rushdi Jappie with successive deliveries, but Saqib and Burhan Niaz were equal to the challenge, the former ending on 57 not out and Niaz on 21.

The win took Pinjab back to the top of the table, but VRA dropped to fifth, behind Hermes-DVS on net run rate despite the latter’s surprise loss to VOC at the Hazelaarweg.

Olivier Elenbaas’s unbeaten 40 was the high point of the Schiedammers’ disappointing 125 for six, and VOC then produced one of their more convincing batting efforts of the season.

Hikmatullah Jabarkhail did his best to keep Hermes in the game, dismissing Tim de Kok for 25 and Ramdas Upadhyaya for31, and when the Bloodhounds subsided from 96 for two to 115 for five it was the visitors who might have scented blood.

But Arnav Jain and Jelte Schoonheim held firm, and saw their side to a five-wicket victory with three overs to spare.

Events at Thurlede followed a strikingly similar course, with Excelsior ‘20 dismissing Sparta 1888 for 123 and going on to win by six wickets in 17.4 overs.

Excelsior skipper Roel Verhagen claimed three for 17, but it was his predecessor as captain, former international Tom Heggelman, who had picked up two wickets on his return to the colours against Rood en Wit last week, who did the crucial damage, removing Sparta’s overseas trio of Juandre Scheepers (36), Karl Klesse (24) and Lukas Boorer (11).

He finished with three for 19, and with Nihal Reddy claiming two for 23 Excelsior’s attack exhibited more edge than ithas for much of the season.

Then Raynard van Tonder hammered a 33-ball 69 which included seven fours and five sixes, and although Umar Baker took three for 11, including Van Tonder’s wicket and that of the almost equally dangerous Sam Rahaley, Stan van Troost and Misra Mohool saw Excelsior home.

With VOC scheduled to play Rood en Wit next week, Excelsior are not yet certain to avoid a rfelegation play-off against the Hoofdklasse T20 champions, and will need to beat HCC at De Diepput to be sure of staying in at least seventh place.

At the other end of the table, VRA will squeeze into the semi-finals if they beat Sparta and Hermes-DVS lose to Punjab, while victories for VRA, Voorburg – who take on HBS at Westvliet – and Hermes would see HCC miss out were they to be beaten by Excelsior.

It promises to be an enthralling final round of the round robin, and with the match at De Diepput, somewhat bizarrely, scheduled to start an hour after the other four, HCC and Excelsior will know exactly what they have to do to protect their respective positions.

And then, of course, there’s the Dutch weather …