At 5.05pm Sunday, on a still lush green Tasman Tanning No1 pitch at Victoria Park, Property Brokers United spinner Robbie Power trapped New Plymouth Old Boys No11 batsman Kyle Pillay LBW to confirm the biggest upset secured by a Wanganui Premier club team in years.
For the first time, a Taranaki one-day champion will not be going to the Central Districts finals of the National Club Competition (NCC), as the usual speed bump of the qualifying game against the Whanganui representative became a concrete road block after United completed a massive 24 hours, following on from scrapping by St Johns Tech, to snatch a stunning 75-run victory over the unbackable favourites NPOB.
Using all the local knowledge about how dangerous the green No1 pitch has been in recent weeks, with their paceman Ryan Slight securing 13 wickets in two games, United captain Tom Lance won the toss but defied conventional wisdom about attempting to ambush the Taranaki side for a cheap score and then setting themselves to use all 50 overs to graft the runs.
United went in and were promptly 18-3 with Tom McDougall (3-23) getting amongst the top order, before representative batsman Greg Smith dug in for an anchoring 56 from 68 balls, sharing important little partnerships with Lance (21) and Simon Badger (34).
"It was just grafting really. We lost early wickets," Smith said after his big effort.
"But we do bat a long way down [the order] today.
"The second day [wicket] does tend to be better. It's flattening out.
"We'll keep chipping away at it. It's turning a bit."
NPOB were animated in the field but possibly did not suspect United's small score was actually a good fighting innings - No1 pitch had yielded no more than 144 in a club innings so far this summer.
Still, the wheels were nearly spinning off when an annoyed Brendon Walker trudged away from a tough LBW call at 133-7, but Robbie Power (26) worked with Badger for another key little partnership of 45 while NPOB were using their spinners and slow bowlers.
Badger then got trapped himself, but Power managed to get his team through to the final over, just missing out on breaking the physiological barrier of 200 when he was caught in the deep as the last wicket.
NPOB started as they thought they'd go on as openers Jackson Braddock-Pajo (39) and Matt Shaw (15) attacked at better than a run a ball against Slight and Badger.
However, Slight (3-30) would not be denied, getting Shaw's stumps, and then producing an edge from Chad Quinney, while Badger had Ben Mitchell caught behind.
Braddock-Pajo suddenly slowed right up as he lost three straight partners for ducks when Kent Jordan was trapped LBW by Slight.
"Just getting it down on a long length, and letting the pitch do the work," Slight said of his amazing three-match run of form.
With United having bowled their young speedster out, the veterans went at a vulnerable NPOB lower order at 43-4.
Jamie Watkins (27 not out) survived an early LBW shout, but then the fired-up Walker (2-39) bowled Braddock-Pajo and the Taranaki team knew they were in trouble.
Despite having barely played this summer, the returning Ritesh Verma (2-8) collected the stumps of both McDougall and Dean Stewart in consecutive balls, as NPOB now needed tailenders who were barely required to bat in their club championship winning season to see them through.
Rhys Barron survived 22 balls with Watkins to keep hope alive at 115-8, but then Power came on and in the space of eight deliveries, had got both the final batsmen to set off whoops of unrestrained joy from across the park.
To underline how unexpected the success was, captain Lance did not even know where and when the four-team Central Districts NCC tournament is being held.
Nonetheless, after a bare trophy cabinet last season, it meant so much to United, especially their veterans, to have won such a high profile fixture.
"That was the goal at the start of the season, this is a game we wanted to win," said Lance.
"I was thinking [we should have bowled] after we were 18-3 after the start.
"That [pitch] had two days of cricket in a row. It didn't change at all.
"They got off to a bit of a flyer, but a couple of wickets pegged them back.
"Then we just strangled them."
He praised the bowling attack of Slight, Badger and first-change Walker for setting the tone and shocking the confident visitors.
"Ritesh [Verma] stepped up too, there's been a few of us that haven't had a lot of cricket, but it didn't look like we missed a beat.
"They didn't let up, built the pressure."
In Saturday's local final on Tasman Tanning No1, St Johns Tech were bowled out for 102 in the 35th over, before United clawed their way to 104-7, with only six batsmen in total reaching double figures.
Tech captain Dominic Lock held his ground for 44 from 93 balls, with his only support coming from Kane Watkin (23) as they were building a similar partnership to last weekend against Marist.
However, both fell victim to Slight in the 28th over to sink any chance of a truly competitive total.
Slight made it three wickets in the over when he bowled Josh Roebuck to be sitting on a hat trick.
The young paceman again was the destroyer with 6-19 from his nine overs, while Badger had another profitable day with 3-22.
The key Tech men of Nick Harding, Akash Gill, Calum Coker and Ross Kinnerley were all gone in short order.
In reply, United were struggling at 6-2, and had further concerns when returning skipper Lance was gone first ball to Kinnerley to leave them 48-4.
However, veteran Gerard Hobbs (27), Smith (26) and wicketkeeper Chris Sharrock (29) worked them towards the total, with Sharrock striking six boundaries to be scoring better than a run a ball before losing his stumps.
Badger (16no) saw them home in the 25th over.
Across on No2 pitch, Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens picked up a confidence-building seven wicket win over Marist in another low scoring match in the playoff for third.
Marist started well with John McIlraith (43) and Craig Thorpe (13) navigating the team through to the 12th over, however wickets began to tumble quickly after that for the team to be in trouble at 74-5 in the 21st over.
Dan Ford (4-20) took scalps at both ends of the order, as only Marist's Matthew Bennett (20) put up solid resistance, with Marton's bowlers all sharing the spoils, including Dominic Rayner (2-29) and Sam Lambert (2-15).
Marton then put on the only comfortable looking run chase of the weekend, as opener Scott Oliver (44no) shored up his end, even though Trey Bidois and Tom Westwood fell quickly in the middle stages as Mark Fraser again did damage with his spinners (3-35).
But once Fraser had been seen off, Oliver carried on with Craig Clare, who hit five boundaries in his run-a-ball 25 not out to have proceedings wrapped up in the 28th over.
Scoreboards
December 18
NCC Qualifier: United 197 (G Smith 57, S Badger 34, R Power 26, T Lance 21, T McDougall 3-23, T Jury 3-32) bt New Plymouth Old Boys 122 (J Braddock-Pajo 39, J Watkins 27, R Slight 3-30, R Power 2-1, R Verma 2-8, B Walker 2-39) by 75 runs.
December 17
NCC Local Final: Tech 102 (D Lock 44, K Watkin 23, R Slight 6-19, R Slight 3-22) lost to United 104-7 (C Sharrock 29, G Hobbs 27, G Smith 26, R Kinnerley 3-11) by three wickets.
Playoff for third: Marist 109 (J McIlraith 43, M Bennett 20, D Ford 4-20) lost to Marton Saracens 111-3 (S Oliver 43no, C Clare 25no, M Fraser 3-35) by seven wickets.