IF the rain stays away, the undefeated Macquarie Hotel will be aiming to keep their streak going against the reigning Hastings River District Cricket Association premiers Wauchope RSL.
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Day one of the grand final will be played on a rain-affected wicket at Wayne Richards Park tomorrow (March 25), with officials yet to reschedule the clash. If they do, it will be played next weekend (April 1 and 2).
Assuming it is going ahead, Macquarie captain Josh Hyde believes it could come down to a toss of the coin.
“If it doesn’t rain and we play, the pitch has plenty of demons on it when it’s wet,” he said.
“In the past any game that has been rain affected the week leading up has become a 90 percent chance to whoever wins the toss and elects to bowl first.
“I don’t want a grand final to come down to that, but there’s every chance that may happen.
“You’d like to have sun for a full week and have a nice deck prepared, to give both sides a 50-50 chance, but you have to deal with whatever happens.
“At the end of the day there won’t be any excuses, you either win or you lose.”
Hyde described the clash a grudge match, with plenty of heated games taking place in the past.
“It’s definitely a grudge match. A grand final a few years ago was a pretty spiteful game, and every time we play it seems to be more to play for than just winning a game of cricket,” he said.
“This year we got the better of them in the Twenty20 and last year they got the better of us. They knocked us out in the semi finals last year, so we have a bit of a point to prove and there’s no better way of doing that then winning the grand final.”
Both captains would like to see the game rescheduled, but seems that won’t be the case.
Miller said it was fitting that first comes up against second, but was confident his troops could claim back to back titles.
“It’s been hard with the preparation. Neither side has been able to train much, but our goal is simply to come out and win back to back, and that’s what all the boys have been focused on,” he said.
“Macquarie have some really good players, but so do we. We always have someone who steps up, and that is something we all have to do if we want to come away with another grand final win.”
The second grade grand final will be played at Oxley Oval between Bonny Hills and Macquarie Hotel, third grade will be at Tuffins Lane between Port Pirates Mutineers and Port Pirates Buccaneers, and fourth grade will be played between Port City Leagues Magpies and Camden Haven at Wood Street.