DUNSBOROUGH Cricket Club will take on Yallingup-Oddbods in this Saturday's Barnard Cup showdown to decide the premier team in the Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association for the 2021-22 season.
But there will be no crowd present for the big game at Dunsborough, and no windup presentations afterwards.
Last week's introduction of stricter COVID regulations in WA has forced the cricket association to stage a low-key end to the summer, where the individual grounds are to be roped off, and the action is to be seen by players and umpires only.
At Barnard Park last Saturday, Yallingup-Oddbods had the better of St Marys in a closely fought A-Grade preliminary final.
Saints batted first and were made to work hard for their runs on a seaming deck, with YOBS fast bowlers Neil Langenhoven (3-24) and Scott Young (5-20) taking advantage of the generous sideways movement to return great bowling figures.
Saints were dismissed for 90 in 31.4 overs, a total which included 21 from veteran Danny Hatton, and useful cameos of 17 from Jordan Clohessy and 15 from teenager Rory Calhoun.
Chasing 91 to win, YOBS lost wickets early and at 4-44 it was still anyone's game, until skipper Haig Colombera smashed 40 not out off 29 balls to decide the game in just the 20th over, as YOBS got home by six wickets.
This Saturday's BMRCA B-Grade grand final, which will be played on the adjacent synthetic ground at the Dunsborough Playing Fields, will see top team Vasse (the reigning premiers, led by Shane Bromilow) take on home team Dunsborough (skippered by Cam Morris) for the Barnard Shield.
Saturday's C-Grade grand final, contested for Penfold Shield, will be played this year at Cowaramup, for the first time since 2013.
Cowaramup won the right to host the C-Grade grand final after beating Vasse in the second semi-final two weeks ago.
However, a major controversy has arisen over who Cowaramup are to meet in the playoff.
The C-Grade preliminary final last week saw Vasse comfortably defeat Dunsborough by 100 runs.
However, Dunsborough protested due to Vasse including an ineligible player in their side, and last Thursday the BMRCA voted to uphold the protest and award the game to Dunsborough on a forfeit.
The BMRCA committee's decision to uphold the protest came despite an error by the BMRCA the previous week, which specifically permitted Vasse (in writing) to include the player in question (Dennis Amour) in their team.
Vasse Cricket Club have been astonished that the forfeit has been ruled as legitimate, despite being misled by the association on the day before the game about who could play for them.
At the time of writing, Vasse were still exploring all options about trying to get the ruling overturned.
