South Wagga’s poor run in Wagga cricket grand finals continued as they suffered another heartbreak in the last match of the season.
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The Blues slumped to a fourth loss in five seasons after rain plagued their chances at Robertson Oval on Sunday.
Sent in to bat by Lake Albert, a 101-run partnership between Marc Sheppard (65) and Brayden Ambler (69) had the Blues on the front foot.
Despite a stumble, where they lost 4-34, Luke Gerhard (49 not out) continued the positive approach late on day one.
While a draw would be enough for the Bulls to seal the premiership, with the pressure on the Blues to win, plus a poor forecast for Sunday, captain Joel Robinson declared at 6-232 to give Lake Albert a tricky nine overs on Saturday evening.
Adam Skow picked up a wicket in the last over of the day’s play and despite a brilliant catch by Gerhard to remove Danny Webber, the Blues failed to make an real inroads before rain halted play in the 40th over.
Robinson was left to rue what could have been for the team.
“It is the way it goes,” Robinson said.
“You obviously can’t control the weather and we knew there was going to be some rain around so the toss came into pretty big time.
“It is always tough to bowl a team out in 40 overs but we played the game as good as we probably could of.
“We batted really well yesterday, you can’t fault our top order.”
Robinson was also impressed with how Alex Jones (16) and Nathan Cooke (8 not out) batted out the innings with Gerhard to give the Blues a sniff of the premiership.
Picking up a wicket late on day one was a big boost for the Blues and Robinson was pleased with how they were situated before rain ended play.
“We had plenty of chances, plenty of shouts and plenty of plays and misses and I think the game was pretty evenly balanced,” he said.
“I don’t think either team was massively on top and another 20 or 30 overs out there really could have decided it either way.
“It would have been nice to get back on here, have another session and see how it played out as we were really confident with where we were.”
In a cruel twist, it was a wash out against Lake Albert that really pushed South Wagga into second place.
Robinson had scored a century in the day-night clash before the weather intervened and a win would have been enough for the Bulls to finish on top of the ladder and take the title after the drawn grand final.
“Play that game at 1 o’clock and all of a sudden we are on top of the ladder, but again that is the way it goes,” he said.
