Supplied image. Picture: LEANNE MULCAHY
CASTERTON and District Cricket Association will be without its form team for the association's two-day grand final at the weekend.
Edenhope Cricket Club will not feature in the decider after pulling out of the finals because of a former player's wedding.
The club was languishing near the bottom of the association ladder when eight of its first-XI players were invited to a wedding in Melbourne on Saturday.
Club president and first XI skipper Theo Zaxos, who was one of the invitees, said it was a tough decision to make, but at the time finals looked out of the question.
"We made our decision fairly early to let the association know what was going on," he said.
"We thought it was fair on the association so that the team which finished fifth would play in the finals."
Zaxos said his side remarkably turned its season around and had won every game since the wedding invitations were sent out to finish the home-and-away season in third spot.
"We haven't lost a game since the end of November," he said.
"I thought we were a really good chance of winning the grand final we beat both Casterton and Pigeon Ponds in the second half of the season."
Association president John Donegan said he was told about Edenhope's decision to withdraw from the finals at a meeting in January.
"The meeting reluctantly endorsed Edenhope's unusual request to withdraw from the finals series and surrender its place in the final four to the fifth-placed team, Merino Cricket Club," he said.
Casterton and Pigeon Ponds will face off in the two-day grand final on Saturday and Sunday.