THE Sunraysia Cricket Association has hailed the introduction of the White Ball Cup for the 2019-20 season a success.
A healthy crowd was at the Old Aerodrome Sporting Complex on Sunday for the First Division final on John Hall Oval and the Second Division final on Aero Oval 1 and saw Irymple defeat Workers Gol Gol in both grades.
SCA administration manager Peter Woodford said he had received good feedback about the concept to have a white-ball final for the top two grades.
“The feedback, and the number of people in attendance watching both games was positive,” he said.
“Just looking at the numbers of cars around the ground there were more people than on a usual Saturday at any of the grounds.
“What different captains said after the game were positive, there was some skepticism early in the season about changing everything – at the end yesterday, it was very positively received.”
Woodford said the fact both grades featured the same clubs showed their depth and signalled the format would continue next season with minor tweaks.
“There’s probably a few things to tie up early in the year with the Twenty20 stuff,” he said.
“I suppose we are lucky as an association to have the novelty of two good grounds with lights, as an umpire, to umpire a couple of games that were under lights was a different experience – and a positive one.”
Woodford praised the efforts of Mildura West in their hosting of the day, especially with there being rain overnight Saturday and in the early hours of Sunday.
In particular, he paid tribute to West president Richard Chamberlain, who went above and beyond when rain was threatening.
“He lives in Gol Gol and came across at 2am (Sunday) to put covers on,” Woodford said.
“(SCA board member) Mark Dorman came and helped him at 4am because it was too much for one bloke.”
