Some days, when it rains, it pours.
And while New Zealand farmers have been crying out for precipitation all summer, it was the Mount Maunganui premier cricket team left teary-eyed after rain reduced the Northern Districts qualifying final for the National Club Championships to a bowl off at Blake Park
on Sunday.
The Baywide champs, who beat Hamilton side Star Varsity to earn a place in the ND final against Northland's Kaipara Flats, fell 7-6 in a sudden death bowl off in miserable conditions - breaking Bay of Plenty's five-year stranglehold on the Eric Petrie Cup.
A total of 3.8mm of rain had fallen in Tauranga in the 31 days before Sunday, but about 8mm fell between noon and 6pm, washing out the home side's solid start of 26/1 from just six completed overs.
To prevent the cruel prospect of a coin toss deciding which team would represent ND at the national finals in Auckland, the umpires and both captains agreed on a bowl off - in which six bowlers from each side twice attempted to hit the stumps in pouring rain.
