BDCA: Colts and Dalyellup to face off in preliminary final, Hay Park and Marist set for elimination final

A home and away season which saw 20 rounds of cricket played will count for nothing when the Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association men’s first grade finals get under way on Saturday. First-placed Colts will take on second-placed Dalyellup at Bunbury Recreation Ground for the right to secure direct passage to the grand final, while third-placed Hay Park will come up against fourth-placed Marist in a do-or-die elimination final. In a strange fixturing quirk, both finals will be rematches of games played in the last round of the home and away season, when Colts edged out Dalyellup by two wickets and Marist beat Hay Park by 97 runs. Last year’s two grand finalists again dominated this season, with reigning premiers Colts losing only four games to finish three games clear of Dalyellup at the top of the table. As ever, Murray Goodwin shapes as the key wicket for Dalyellup — in his three one-day games against Saturday’s opponent this season, the Colts legend has made scores of 72, 96 and 49 without being dismissed. But Dalyellup have their own batting superstar to pin their hopes on with wicketkeeper-batter Bradman May, who is just 45 runs short of a magical 1000-run milestone for the season and has scores of 90, 89 and 86 against Colts to his credit this summer. May’s 955 runs to date is the most prolific individual campaign in the competition since the legendary Glen Dehring accumulated 902 in the 2005-06 summer, though he has been given more opportunities to bat with T20 fixtures being folded into the season. Hay Park sat comfortably in third for much of the summer but three of their 10 wins came in the T20 format, with their win-loss record in one-day games comparatively less impressive at 7-8. Saturday’s result means the Blues will come into the do-or-die clash full of confidence, having recently regained the services of dynamic batter Cooper Clarke-Dehring and with their star batter Haydn Slodecki having passed 50 in three of his past five knocks. Colts and Dalyellup will also clash in the second-grade qualifying final, with the other first-versus-second matches featuring Capel and Eaton (third-grade), Dalyellup and Rising Stars (fourth-grade) and Rising Stars and Dalyellup Black (fifth-grade). In the lower grade elimination finals, Donnybrook will come up against Burekup (second-grade), Rising Stars will take on Colts (third-grade), Eaton come up against Harvey-Benger (fourth grade) and Colts play Dalyellup Orange (fifth grade).