It certainly wasn't the way they wanted to claim it, but the CYMS Cougars are headed to the grand final as minor premiers after the heavy rain on the weekend caused matches to be abandoned.
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All three matches across the RSL Whitney Cup were called well short on the first day of the final round, with CYMS batting for just 19 full overs before the sudden, torrential conditions wreaked havoc with the fields at Lady Cutler.
The RSL Colts seemed to have the ladder leading Cougars in trouble early, after Gilbert Chaseling, Tom Coady and Lachlan Strachan all went for 31 runs combined.
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Brock Larance and Thomas Nelson were unable to completely right the ship, with skipper Ben Knaggs going for a duck shortly after.
While the prospects didn't look good for CYMS' innings, the downpour cut short the attack from Colts' bowlers Bede Young and Ben Semmler and staunched the bleeding.
Amidst rain and thunder, the two teams waited for an hour before Knaggs and opposing captain Marty Jeffrey agreed to call the game off.
While the result will officially be ruled a draw, with both teams sharing points, it'll have a larger knock-on effect of denying the Colts the chance to secure the minor premiership and book directly into the grand final.
Colts will now have to down Macquarie in the upcoming semi-final if they want to meet CYMS again this season.
Macquarie have gained a grand final appearance against Rugby, but they also shared points on the weekend, as did Newtown and Souths.
For CYMS, the delay before play resumes for them in the grand final could provide other headaches, with only Coady and Chaseling having been given meaningful lengths of time batting over the last two weeks.
While Dubbo District Cricket Association president Jeff Shanks said it was an unwanted end to the regular season, he noted that there wasn't much that could be done from the association's point of view.
"That's the way it works, unfortunately," Shanks said.
"It's definitely a shame to have it play out like that, but I think at the end of the day a lot of us would rather have the rain than not have it."
While the rainy end to the regular season came as a particular blow to several teams who had hoped to improve their position or earn a finals berth with a win, Shanks said he was glad to see that across all the grades, each club had at least one side with a chance at taking home a title.
"It does show that each club has been performing well, that's exactly right," Shank said.
"It's always good when you see every club getting a chance to represent during the finals and it shows the strength of the competition across all three grades when we have that variety."