MILDURA Settlers captain Braidyn Turner says it feels weird to claim the Sunraysia Cricket Association (SCA) First Division title despite not winning the grand final.
The SCA was forced to call off the weekend’s grand finals after Cricket Victoria strongly recommended all community cricket competitions be cancelled in an effort to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19, handing Settlers back-to-back shields
“It doesn’t really sit well with me, I would have probably much preferred it be nobody wins, or joint winners or something like that,” Turner said.
“It is a weird feeling, it’s pretty hard to explain, it doesn’t sit particularly well with me but at the end of the day we get some recognition for the effort we put in to finish on top, but it’s a bit weird for me, yes.”
Turner said his attitude was reflected around the club.
“Just around everyone it’s a weird feeling being named premiers without actually playing a grand final, “ he said.
Turner said the whole virus situation, beyond the SCA, was surreal.
“It changes within the minute, two days ago you wouldn’t have even thought about the grand final being cancelled and then all of a sudden it is, pretty much everything is cancelled,” he said.
The Settlers captain said it would have been difficult for the SCA to plan ahead for something like this to happen.
“It’s obviously hard for them to write in their constitution about a worldwide pandemic, it’s not even once in a generation or lifetime that happens,” he said.
“They can obviously write in about inclement weather but they may have to put something about a worldwide pandemic just in case it happens again in the next 1000 years or something.”
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A disappointed Workers Gol Gol captain-coach Adam Thomson, who led his side to a loss to Settlers in last season’s decider, felt similar to his Settlers counterpart.
“It’s a bit of a strange feeling, we’ve lost the grand final but it sort of feels like we haven’t as well, it’s very odd,” he said.
“It’s a lot different to last year as well. Last year we sort of fell over the line in the last couple of games and this year we seem to have found form at the right time of the year, it’s disappointing we haven’t got to test ourselves against the best side while we’ve been in form.”
He paid credit to Settlers on a strong season, with the premiers only dropping three games and no two-day games for the whole season.
“They were the best side during the year, there’s definitely no argument about that,” Thomson said.
