BATHURST City's run in this season's Royal Hotel Cup competition is over after a Wade Park deck captain Joey Coughlan described as "the wettest, softest pitch I have ever seen in my life", was declared unsafe for Friday night's qualifying final to reach a conclusion.
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It was in the 12th over of Redbacks' innings against Orange CYMS that the decision was made to declare the Twenty20 fixture a draw.
By that stage Redbacks had been reduced to 5-35, CYMS duo Hugh Le Lievre (2-3 off two overs) and former Zimbabwean international Vusi Sibanda (2-15 off three) having benefitted from the tricky conditions.
Given CYMS had finished higher on the ladder than Redbacks after the cup's pool games, they will advance to the semi-finals.
While Coughlan said "it's not anyone's fault that it rains", he was disappointed with how things unfolded.
"I think we either should have played all of it, or none of it ... it was a very tough pill to swallow," he said.
"Once it's deemed to fit to play at the start and you get 11-and-a-half overs in, I don't think you should call the game off. It was a weird one, I suppose we just cop it on the chin.
"I had the best plans for the field in that game, we were going to have three blokes under the lid and surround the bat and all we were going to do is bowl bullet straight because it will rear up and they'll hit it straight to our fielders.
"We could've defended 50 on that pitch it was that bad."
I think we either should have played all of it, or none of it ... it was a very tough pill to swallow.
- Joey Coughlan
The covers were still on when the Redbacks players arrived at Wade Park on Friday and after removing them to look at the deck - "I gave it a bit of a press with the thumb and it went in" - Coughlan was sure the game would be called off.
"I thought there was not a chance that we'd play on that," he said.
However, being a quarter-final the game proceeded. CYMS won the toss and it was little surprise they opted to bowl first.
"Me and Ormey [Ben Orme] opened the batting. First ball I get Mick Delaney bowls just a gentle off-break outside off, I went forward to defend it, it rears up and hits me in the chest and left a massive divot in the pitch," Coughlan said.
"Then the pace bowler came on the other end and I tried to charge him first ball just to see what would happen. The ball digs into the pitch, tennis-ball bounces over the top of my bat, almost hits me in the head and goes through to the keeper.
"Then I got one I tried to defend, it hit the shoulder of the bat and went to gully, then I got another which was straight, I didn't know what it was going to do, I put the bat there, leading edge to short cover."
Aside from a Mark Tobin slog-sweep for six, Redbacks struggled to deal with the conditions and the wickets fell.
It was shortly after Mark Day was struck in the elbow - Coughlan saying: "It reared up off a good length and it would've hit him in the head, but his elbow got in the way" - it was deemed unsafe for play to continue and a draw was declared.
"I usually mark the centre 10 times with my foot just to make sure that centre is marked, but one stroke of my spike and I swear there was water bubbling it up, it was the worst I'd ever seen," the Redbacks skipper said.
"It's nothing against the curator, he couldn't help that ... he'd had the covers on all day."
CYMS will meet the victor of the qualifying final between Rugby Union and Centrals in the grand final qualifier on February 19.
