ALL the mathematical possibilities revolving around who could take the prized fourth spot in the WDCA finals ended up not making a lick of difference.
With Merrivale, Brierly Christ Church and Dennington all a chance to steal the last spot in the four from Russells Creek, the end result was pretty straight-forward.
Russells Creek negated the other teams' chances by defeating top-placed Allansford, but Merrivale, Brierly or Dennington couldn't manage a much-needed win to give themselves a finals berth.
Creek earned its semi-finals berth ? which will be against Allansford ? by overcoming a slow start and successfully defending a moderate score of 8-181 from its 50 overs.
Winning the toss and batting, Creek lost openers Nathan Divall and Matthew Bignell cheaply and found itself at 2-2, struggling to only 2-10 at the 10 over mark.
A steadying partnership from Shane Fowles (26) and Shanaka Perumpuli (27) helped bring Creek back into the game and set up a platform for Shaun Trenorden, whose 64 runs not only boosted the total but helped pick up the run rate.
Trenorden also had good support from captain Ben Boyd (26) and Adrian Benson (13).
A cracking start by Allansford openers William Primmer (29) and Kyall Timms (31) got the Gators to 0-40 off the first 10 overs.
It had reached 3-100, with Sam McCluggage top-scoring with 35, and looked to be cruising. But Creek's bowlers stepped up, grinding the run rate down.
Trenorden proved to be as handy with the ball as the bat, picking up 3-23.
Boyd and John Anderson also chimed in with two wickets each, and thanks to some tight fielding, Allansford ran out of overs at 9-152.
"We just had to win to maintain our spot," Boyd said.
"We were obviously in the box seat if we won, but if we lost there was a fair chance we would have been knocked out (of the final four)."
Boyd said it was tight bowling and good fielding that got them back in the match, but he singled out Trenorden as an obvious man of the match.
"He had a really good day all round," he said.
Facing the Gators again next week will make for an interesting game, but Boyd said the weekend's win would help give them an edge. "I hope winning gives us a bit more confidence," Boyd said.
Merrivale needed to defeat second-placed Nestles to have a chance of taking fourth place, but could only set a total of 99 batting first, with Matthew Wilkinson the lone batsman to make double figures, notching up 52 not out.
Nestles bowlers managed 19 maidens in the 49.1 overs. Paceman Brayden Hotker was the pick of them (3-19 off 10 overs) but all bowled inexpensively.
In reply, the Factory passed its target with the loss of just three wickets. Thomas Batten made 55 as Nestles reached 8-163 off 50 overs.
Sixth-placed Brierly, also in a must-win situation, couldn't get the points against bottom side Wesley CBC.
After being sent in to bat, the Bulls struggled through to 5-61, before Jyles Lebler (31), Mark Murphy (15) and Shane Murphy (30) waved the bat, dragging Brierly to a respectable 8-146.
Wesley had the run chase in hand early, with openers David Tucker (65) and Jonathon Sadler (46) getting it to 88 for the first wicket.
Jason Greer proved to be the best of the Brierly bowlers, removing the top four for just 23 runs, but it wasn't enough as Wesley cruised to victory, making 8-171 from its 50 overs.
Dennington was also a statistical chance of making the finals but third-placed West Warrnambool had other ideas.
Despite holding West to 9-118 from 50 overs, the Dogs failed to capitalise and were bowled out for a paltry 50 runs in 24 overs.
Dustin Drew made 27 in a line-up that featured six ducks, as Simon Johnson (6-18) and Anthony Chirnside (4-13) tore through the Dennington line-up.
Allansford will play Russells Creek in the semis next weekend and Nestles will take on West Warrnambool.
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