THIS SATURDAY'S Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association men's grand finals have been called off at the last minute.
The grand finals, which were due to be held at Margaret River for A, B and C-grade, were abandoned just yesterday morning after Cricket Australia issued an instruction to all cricket competitions around Australia to "cease playing immediately" due to the health scare associated with the coronavirus issue.
As a result, the BMRCA committee is likely to award the premierships to the first teams which qualified for the grand finals.
This means that Margaret River Hawks (A-grade), St Marys (B-grade) and Dunsborough (C-grade) will go down in the record books as the 2019-20 premiers.
The end-of-season windups for the BMRCA, and all cricket clubs, have also been all abandoned in the unprecedented circumstances the world is facing.
Last weekend's semi-finals and preliminary finals were played under the threat of rain, and in all cases except one the games managed to produce results, albeit some under a reduced-overs format.
The biggest casualty was the A-grade preliminary final at Dunsborough on Saturday, which was brought to an unfortunate end by heavy rain after Dunsborough had made a remarkable recovery against YOBS and the game was poised for a tight finish.
Dunsborough eventually totalled 9-180 from 50 overs, providing YOBS with a large target. In drizzling and deteriorating conditions, YOBS mustered 6-155 before a downpour finally ended the game with 10 overs still to be bowled.
A Duckworth-Lewis calculation gave YOBS victory - and a theoretical berth in the A-grade grand final against Hawks - in conditions which were unsatisfying for all.
In B-grade semi-finals on Saturday, St Marys (6-128) proved too strong for YOBS (126 all out) in the major semi-final at Barnard Park, winning with 14 overs to spare.
The minor semi-final saw Dunsborough (9-141) outplayed by Vasse (4-144) with 6 overs to spare.
Sunday's B-grade preliminary final at Barnard Park, reduced by late morning rain to 40 overs a side, saw YOBS (9-156) end the hopes of Vasse, who were dismissed for just 75 in 27 overs in response.
St Marys and YOBS were therefore due to meet in this Saturday's B-grade grand final.
Both C-grade semi-finals were held in Margaret River, and both were both low-scoring affairs, with Dunsborough defeating Vasse in the major and YOBS overcoming Hawks in the do-or-die first semi-on the Gloucester Park synthetic wicket.
Vasse were dismissed for 98 before Dunsborough powered to a nine-wicket victory in just 15.3 overs, with Andreas Pantelias (32no) and Chris Dudley (41no) both unbeaten at the finish.
Hawks also made just 93 all out in their game (Danny Weston making 36) with left-armer Darren Cameron starring with 5-26 for YOBS, who struggled to victory with six wickets down.
Sunday's prelim final at Vasse, reduced by rain to 25 overs a side, saw Vasse bowled out for 89 in 21 overs before YOBS (5-91) scrambled home with 10 balls to spare.
The C-grade grand final would have seen Dunsborough face YOBS.