It was a tough day at the office for Queanbeyan wicketkeeper Michael Medved and the rest of the Bluebags, conceding defeat to Wests/UC on day two. Photo: Steph Konatar.
THE Queanbeyan Bluebags senior side was taught a lesson by in-form defending premiers Wests/UC at Freebody Oval over the weekend, forcing them out of the race for the Cricket ACT Douglas Cup.
Queanbeyan captain Sam 'Tubby' Taylor was forced to concede the game, down by 227 runs in the first innings with two wickets in hand.
"The first session of the game really let us down and we were chasing our tails from there," all-rounder Mark Solway said.
"We lost some bad wickets and they had some good bowling.
"And then they showed us how to bat."
Solway said Taylor had no choice but to concede, given the task ahead of them.
"We were 230-odd behind at tea with two wickets still to get, we would have had to get the last two and make our runs very quickly, and it just wouldn't have happened," he said.
Worrying signs came early for Queanbeyan, all out for 222- Lakshmn Shivakkumar (78) the only batsmen to manage a half century.
Wickets also fell early for Wests/UC, but Blake McDonald and Adam Hewitt steadied the ship for a 3/170 reply at the end of day one.
17-year-old McDonald (142) slogged his maiden first-grade century, combining with Hewitt (113) to finish Wests/UC at the end of day one with 8/489, and sealing a convincing victory over Queanbeyan.
"They showed us how to bat," Solway said.
"McDonald and Hewitt batted how we should've batted."
Queanbeyan's Guy Gillespie (3/103 in 26 overs) and Taylor (2/61 in 19 overs) were the Bluebags best bowlers.
Solway said despite the loss and premature exit from finals the season has exceeded the expectations of the young team.
"We had a big turnaround from last year and a few of our good players left," he said.
"The average age of our team was actually only about 20- we had something like seven teenagers playing over the weekend.
"We spoke after the game and tried to figure out what went wrong and inexperience came up."
The Bluebags 1s will look to build upon the strong foundations that were built this year, Solway said.
"If we stick together, we've already had the experience of finals, so we should be a lot better next season," he said.
"We've done pretty well to build from scratch and change the culture of the group.
"It's now a very good culture within the group and this has been by far the most enjoyable season."
Despite looking like they were down and out the Bluebags have shown they could get up, dust themselves off and be competitive without some of the key players they had lost, Solway said.
"A lot of people wrote us off at the start of the year- the general thought of most teams was that we would just make the top four," he said.
"But we made it to the final of the 20/20, semis in the one-dayer and came second in the two dayer.
"We've definitely played some good cricket."
Wests/UC will tackle Weston Creek Molonglo at Jamison Oval from Friday, after Eastlake conceded defeat at lunch on Sunday.
(Weston Creek Molonglo 233 and 5-220 defeated Eastlake 150)