The weekends Sunshine Coast cricket fixtures were thrown into chaos.
We interviewed Maroochydore Division 1 captain Blain Schloss before his sides game against Caloundra was called off.
What’s been happening this morning?
There’s not a lot happening at the moment. Obviously we’re waiting for the ground tho dry out. So. We really want to get on and play. So, we’re prepared to wait until later in the afternoon. Obviously there’s a couple of games off around the Coast, so, you know, if we get on and play for two day points, either way it would be a great result for us. Things aren’t really going to plan in terms of getting the field mowed and those things. But we’re going to stick around and do what we can and try and get a game later in the afternoon.
When did you guys check the pitch and the field?
We got a call from Wally yesterday to say that the ground wasn’t in a great state, and obviously that’s true. They’ve had a lot of rain here during the week as most grounds have, and there’s quite a few area that are of concern out there. We didn’t arrive until this morning about 9:30 and went straight out there and had a look. There’s no doubt there’s some really troublesome areas out there, but, you know, we want to give the ground the best possible chance to dry. If that means four or five hours of sun and then getting on this afternoon, you know, that might be being optimistic but we want to give ourselves every chance. Credit to our guys. They’re really keen to get out there and play which is great to see from a young group.
When’s the last possible chance you have a look and say on or off?
I assume we could probably stay quite late in the afternoon. Obviously in a one dayer there would be a cut off time. But today, even if we were to get one or two hours in, I don’t think there’s necessarily a cut off time. But, you know, we’re realists as well. If we’re not getting on at 3:30 or 3 o’clock or what ever the time is then we’re not getting on at all, and we just look to a one day fixture next week. I think we got an inspection in the next ten minutes, at 11:30 to see where we’re at, see if there’s been any improvement. We’ll keep doing that for a little while and then, as it’ll be, myself and Wally will make a call when we have to.
So, you’re obviously wanting to get on at some point?
Yeah, that’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re sticking around. We want to get on. We want to be really proactive and play cricket. We didn’t get the chance to play last week against Nambour, whereas Caloundra did. So that’s probably why we’re a little bit more desperate to get out there. We’ve been without cricket for a couple of weeks now, which is obviously disappointing. The guys want to get out there and play. But we always talk about controlling the controllables and you can’t control the weather. We’re doing what we can to get on and if it comes to fruition it does, that’s great. Hopefully we play good two day cricket. But if not we’ll look forward to a one day fixture next week.
Looking forward to getting all three premierships this year?
Yeah, well, we’ve set ourselves up to do that. At the start of the year if you’d offered us two premierships we definitely would’ve taken it. But, the holy grail for us, the one we really want is the two day flag. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to do that. We obviously want to lock in a top two birth in case there any rain in the semi final. And then if we were able to win our way through to that final fixture it would be fantastic. The beauty of it is we’ve given our selves a chance to achieve that feat which I think Caboolture did for the first time last year.
How far clear of third spot are you?
I think we’re two points clear of Caboolture and then only about six points clear of Glasshouse. Both of those teams have been called off today. They’ve got one day fixtures next week. Like I said, If we can get on here today it’d be fantastic. But, if not, no worries. We just need to keep winning. We’ve got two tough matches. Caloundra who are in fourth place, and Gympie who are in fifth place, who are both fighting for there season over the next two weeks. We’ve got to do our job moving into the finals. A couple of tough fixtures, then setting ourselves up for the finals.
Caloundra wanting to insulate themselves from Gympie challenging and Gympie wanting to get into the finals.
Absolutely, yeah. Looking on MyCricket I think Gympie are on up there against Noosa. If they can get a win up there and knock us off next week I guess that gives them the best possible chance to scratch their way into fourth as well. They’ll be playing pretty determined cricket. And obviously, Caloundra if they can get some points out of this game or the next game they’ll be safe as well. It’s an interesting race to finish up. And the fact that the top three teams are quite close makes it an interesting run into the finals
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