Orange District Cricket Association will investigate incidents in Saturday's top grade game between Centrals and CYMS which led to umpire Liam Dillon attempting to abandon the round 13 clash before electing to remove himself, with players assuming the officiating duties thereafter.
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Prior to the second day's first drinks break Dillon warned Centrals players for what he considered unsportsmanlike conduct towards CYMS' batters, with those discussions continuing when players began returning to the field.
The situation escalated to the point where Dillon, citing concerns for his safety, announced he would be abandoning the game and awarding victory to CYMS before leaving the field and the Jack Brabham precinct.
Centrals president Matt Tedeschi and CYMS captain Chris Novak then conferred with Cricket NSW central west development manager and Mitchell Cricket Council secretary Matt Tabbernor - who was umpiring on the adjacent field - and contacted ODCA president Frecklington to confirm the appropriate action as well.
The latter advised them the game should continue and it did with the green and golds, as the batting side, assuming the officiating duties. Centrals eventually went on to win, defending their first day total of 5-305 declared and securing a narrow, 18-run victory.
Because no official reports had reached the ODCA at time of publication Frecklington could not confirm if any individual players had been cited and also said any potential judiciary hearings will be dealt with separately, however he did say the association will examine the incident as a whole.
"In terms of who has or will be been reported, we'll be treating that as a separate process for now because I've not seen any official reports as yet, and we will certainly be investigating the incident outside of that," he said.
"It is a little bit hard to comment on because it's an unusual one for us too and while we've spoken to both captains we'll need to speak to them, and everyone involved, again to make sure we have everything we need, then we'll go from there."
Because the game started with a NSW Umpires and Scorers Association-badged umpire and finished without one there has been questions of a review into the result, however considering the circumstances surrounding the game continuing that looks unlikely as it was a decision made on the advice of the ODCA.
We will certainly be investigating the incident.
- ODCA president Mark Frecklington
"I don't think so," Frecklington said, when asked if the review into the result would be necessary.
"[The clubs involved] contacted [the ODCA] and we advised them to continue the game, they were happy to do that and I think it was better that it continue."
Centrals president Matt Tedeschi, who played in the game as well, chose not to comment on the incident but indicated his club would cooperate with the association's investigations wherever necessary, simply saying "it's in the ODCA's hands now."
The Central Western Daily attempted to contact the CYMS club for comment, but was unable to at time of publication.
The game itself was punctuated by strong individual efforts from CYMS' Dave Neil and Tom Belmonte along with Centrals' Daryl Kennewell and George Olsen.
Neil (73) and Belmonte (50) added 98 for the fifth wicket to push their side into a position to have a serious crack at Centrals' whopping target, although their efforts and the remainder of the chase was stifled by Olsen.
He finished with 4-31 from seven overs and dismissed both Neil and Belmonte along with fellow danger man Hugh Le Lievre (3) in between.
Adam Smith (24) and Mitch Winslade (27) had a crack in the lower order but once again Olsen struck, removing the latter after Ed Dodds (2-50) had claimed the former.
At that stage CYMS were 9-285 and after the green and golds added just two more runs Kennewell, Centrals' skipper, claimed the final wicket of Sonny Day-Tennant for 16 and finished with figures of 3-64.
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
