Flinders Park wins A2 Turf Cricket title, breaking 20-year drought in unusual circumstances
Flinders Park’s 20-year title drought has come to an end after being named A2 Turf Cricket champions last week in unusual circumstances.
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A local cricket club has broken a 20-year title drought in arguably the most unusual circumstances.
Flinders Park Cricket Club, which finished the A2 Turf Cricket season top, was named this season’s premier on Tuesday after finals were abandoned because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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In more crazy circumstances, Reds’ captain, Jarrad Taylor, would not have played in the finals should they have taken place as he was in self-isolation following a trip to Bali.
Taylor did, however, finish as the competition’s leading run scorer with 796 at 61.23.
Flinders Park ended the season with nine wins, a draw, one loss and on 180 points — 29 above second-ranked Reynella.
Club president Graham Crawford said it was a strange way to finally win a premiership after two decades but refused to allow that to overshadow his club’s strong season.
“We’ve been really good all year,” Crawford said.
“Our goal at the start of the season was just to get to A1 and we’ve achieved that, so it’s been very good.
“Everyone has put in such good efforts at training and everyone has worked together as one team.
“It’s a massive achievement for the club to break that drought.
“I think as far as the rules go, if the two (finals) weekends had been washed out then the minor premier gets the title.
“We don’t want to win it this way, we would’ve loved to play a home final and get it done with celebrations as well.
“But there’s more important things at play.
“People’s health is more important than the Flinders Park Cricket Club.”.
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Vice skipper Matt Overall said losing last season’s semi-final galvanised the team and players worked hard to be better this campaign.
He said the team was hoping to celebrate once Taylor was out of self-isolation.
“Obviously it’s not the way we wanted to win,” Overall said.
“But in the scheme of things … it’s probably within reason to make that decision and as far as I’m aware it’s (cancelling finals) is the safest thing to do.
“I am very proud of the group to be so far ahead.
“We felt we were the best team all year, I don’t think we lost a game since round two so we were pretty dominant and would’ve taken a lot of confidence into finals if they went ahead.
“We might wait until our captain is out of self-isolation to celebrate as he was a big factor in us being so dominant.”
Overall plans to continue playing cricket with Flinders Park next season should the competition go ahead as planned.