PORT Macquarie Pirates will look back on the 2019-2020 Mid North Coast Premier Cricket League season as what might have been.
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They can rightly feel aggrieved by the weather before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to be cancelled for the finals.
Pirates had 11 of their 18 fixtures washed out before the entire season ended prematurely on Wednesday night.
While Wingham will rightly be awarded the major trophy after finishing with the minor premiership, Mid North Coast Cricket Council president Dave Burley felt Pirates were primed to give the competition a shake.
"Pirates had the most unfinished games," he said.
"They had games that were started and washed out and then when we came back after Christmas they had a T20 game at Wayne Richards Park washed out even though it hadn't rained.
"It seemed if there was a game affected by weather, Pirates were playing in it.
"I would have backed them to beat Rovers this weekend and then given Wingham a real shake; they've got some really talented kids there."
Burley said the decision to cancel the season came after an edict was sent out by Cricket NSW earlier in the week stating all cricket should be cancelled.
"Some are condemning it as jumping too early, but I would feel terrible if we played cricket this weekend and one of our umpires got sick with coronavirus and then died," he said.
"It's only a game of cricket, yes it's disappointing, but it's only a game of cricket."
In more than three decades of sports administration with cricket, Burley admitted he had never experienced a season like the 2019-2020 one.
"I've never had a season like this before," he said.
"It was badly affected by drought with turf pitches and trying to keep them alive, then we had bushfires, then floods, then constant rain for five weeks.
"It's one of those things; we can control everything else but can't control weather."
Hastings River District Cricket Association also voted unanimously to cancel their season with the teams first into the grand final awarded the respective competition trophies.
President Craig Lobegeier, however, said they thought about postponing the grand final until the week before next season.
"We had thought about doing that, but clubs change and rosters change, but we're thinking of doing a presentation before the start of next season," he said.
"Close everything down until then and have a gala day."
Part of that gala day which could be played on the October long weekend would feature a president's versus vice-president's fixture under lights.
"We could play that on a Sunday night," Lobegeier said.
"It's been a terrible season; drought, bushfires, rain, smoke, and now (the coronavirus) has given us an even bigger disaster."
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