In the eleventh hour race for a dire berth in the Cricket North finals series, Riverside harshly found out that four does not go into three.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They were the last side that got shoved out of contention, needing an outright victory on Saturday after Launceston on the other side of the river secured first-innings points.
Fallen Blues skipper Tom Garwood had to accept the maths in which Launceston snared one less win over Riverside this season, but still squeezed into third place to reach the preliminary final.
"Any side could beat anyone on their day, but we just didn't today," Garwood said.
Riverside resumed at 0-35 and looked to build on a 28-run lead towards pulling off a second innings win.
But Westbury tightened up the screws to restrict the hosts to 8-152 in 73 overs.
"It was very disappointing because obviously we went in with our plans and to their credit they bowled well, so we weren't able to get the amount of runs we wanted to get," Garwood said.
Opener James Simpson batted for nearly three hours for 46 while Cooper Anthes went even longer to score 47.
Nick Spencer bowled out a miserly 12 overs to claim 3-21 and Jono Chapman was the cornerstone of the attack with 2-33 off 18 steady overs.
"We're really happy with our bowlers' efforts earlier in the day," Westbury captain Dan Murfet said.
"We knew Riverside were going to come hard, so we did the job with the ball really well early and restricted the scoring as much as possible."
The Shamrocks showed no interest in chasing 146 at under four an over and risking top spot, finishing on 2-75.
Launceston piled on the runs to surpass the 200 South Launceston set for victory.
Four top-order batsmen scored half-centuries while captain-coach Alistair Taylor added 38 to take the Lions out to 353 from 94.5 overs.
"We're really happy with how it went - it was kind of win or miss the finals," Taylor said. "I suppose in a way it was a little final in itself."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
When opener Cam Lynch fell for 58, the away side were looking shaky at 4-123 after Taylor's earlier dismissal.
But Ben Humphrey (86) and Ethan Conway (67) put on a 94-run stand to secured up the points before Simon Elliston-Buckley batted on to the end for an unbeaten 66.
Graham Donaldson toiled hard for the Knights for 6-64.
The two teams will go head to head again next week for a place in the season decider.
The scenario is a repeat of last season when they faced off in the final round and did it all again in the same final.
The Knights looked to get a psychological edge back, closing up on 1-117. Openers Doug Ryan made 49 not out and Sisitha Jayasinghe 48.
"It was a fairly tame finish - a bit of a reflection of the wicket there," captain Tom Waller said. "It was pretty much one side to the batters."
Subscriptions are available here.
Sign up to our Sport email here.
Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
