Wodonga Raiders looking to improve on last year's breakout season

Raiders are one of three clubs, along with fellow Victorian outfits Wodonga and Tallangatta, who haven't played a game due to wet weather.

A handful of provincial's 11 clubs have completed two games.

"It's been a bit frustrating, although it's not too bad because we've been able to get a bit more training in before the actual season starts," Griffiths said.

"We basically didn't start until the week our season was meant to start."

Due to Victoria's strict COVID-19 restrictions, the State's cricket clubs weren't allowed to start pre-season training as early as NSW outfits.

At one stage, Cricket Albury-Wodonga was seriously contemplating playing in State 'bubbles' where the NSW teams would face each other, while the Victorians tackled one another, while waiting for coronavirus restrictions to ease.

Fortunately it didn't get to that stage, which could have been in place until Christmas, if needed.

The Victorian teams are now allowed to play in NSW. It's just a matter of when the rain stops falling on a Saturday.

"Four weeks in a row (of rain), we don't want, we're really over it now," Griffiths admitted.

"We're keen to play this week (away) against New City, we'd love to get off to a good start."

Raiders will fancy their chances against last year's wooden spooners.

It's a position Raiders know only too well after snaring six straight from 2013-14 to 2018-19.

But the Wodonga-based outfit was able to hand over the spoon last summer to New City.

The club racked up five wins to finish second last.

The key now is maintaining that momentum.

It doesn't mean the club has to play finals, but it will be crucial the club continues to improve.

"All our younger fellows have that year's more experience now, they're a bit bigger, and they've been working on their games with a couple of them having nets at their house, so they haven't been out of the swing too much," Griffiths said.

Griffiths was the club's leading run-scorer last season with 357 at 21 (ranked 28th), while spinner Jonathan Carson claimed 22 wickets at 20 (22nd).

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Elsewhere, Wodonga hosts North Albury, Tallangatta is home to Corowa, Belvoir meets East Albury, while Lavington is home to Albury.

The BOM Climate Data Services says it's likely to be wetter than average for much of the eastern mainland states until November 8, while it's forecast to be wetter than average for nearly all of Australia to January.