St Pat's Old Boys enter Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket finals with win over Centennials Bulls

The Saints-Bulls clash was the only game to take place in the last round of the regular season, as rain washed out all other matches, but there was plenty on the line.

Draws in other games meant Pat's were unable to miss out on finals but Bulls had the chance to leapfrog both the Saints and CYMS if they were to get the better of the hosts at SASC Scots Campus.

But it wasn't to be as the Saints survived a late Bulls fightback with the bat to win by 51 runs.

The match didn't start until 2.30pm and Pat's immediately declared at 5-256 in pursuit of the unlikeliest of outright victories - which would push them into second.

Opener Kyle Aubin's 53 runs quickly dispelled that idea, and the question instead turned to whether Bulls could claim the valuable first innings points.

But supporting players were hard to come by.

Ehsan Ahmed (30) was the only Bulls batsman to offer a middle order counter punch against a Saints attack led by Matt Fearnley (3-43) and Connor Slattery (3-44).

At 8-122 the dream looked dead for Bulls, but Kurt Toole (44) and Percy Raveneau's (40 not out) partnership gave Centennials hope.

However, the stand was ended on 83 runs when Toole was bowled by Slattery, and the final wicket followed on the very next delivery.

Pat's captain Adam Ryan was quick to give praise to Centennials for the grit some of their players showed during the chase.

"The pitch was pretty lively for first half of the contest, then flattened out late in the day. We were going for early wickets, with the chance of going to second spot if we could manage an unlikely outright," he said.

"To centennials credit they batted really well especially Kyle at the top of the order. Ahmed, Percy and Kurt also batted well late to give themselves a shot at the win.

"They almost batted the whole day in trying conditions, which is a reflection of how well they've gone all year, just missing out on finals."

Ryan said there's still things to work on as they prepare to play CYMS in next weekend's minor semi-final.

"We weren't our sharpest in the field, but we're pleased to get the result," he said.

"We're pretty happy with our season, only dropping the one game. Pity about the three draws - and those only being worth one point but that's cricket and the weather."

Three of the four other matches ended in draws while City Colts had already claimed first innings points the previous week in their game against Centrals.