Cricket: Beaver's fairytale continues

Eaton’s dreams of taking part in this season’s Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association First Grade finals are alive, after the club was last night escapted a tribunal hearing without losing competition points.

Pic by Jon Gellweiler

The Beavers had gone into the protests and disputes tribunal with the possibility of being docked competition points because of a playing clearance dispute.

Eaton, who finished with the wooden spoon in the last two seasons but are currently inside the top four, had been forced to defend the status of all-rounder Aaron Quartermaine.

They were last week found guilty by the BDCA board of breaching law 3.14 that states that any player registered to the BDCA may not play in another association at the same time.

It was found that Quartermaine had played games in the Narrogin Cricket Association while he had been registered as an Eaton player.

Speculation that the club stood to be stripped of points because of a clearance breech between Eaton Beavers and Wheatbelt club Harrismith of all-rounder Arron Quartermaine was rife in cricket circles.

But at the hearing on Wednesday P and D Board chairman Peter Silinger, Paul Morgan and Gary Cox agreed there was a breech of law 3.14, stating that any player registered by the BDCA may not play in another association at the same time.

But the board agreed that the breech was not malicious or deliberate, said BDCA secretary Dennis McAtee.

Eaton’s claim that the player was theirs for the season but during a break for harvest on the family farm had played for his old club Harrismith before returning for seasonal duties to Eaton.

According to captain-coach Glen Dehring the club had “not tried to cheat the system” and had gone through the right channels.

Before the hearing he was quoted in the South Western Times as saying: “What we’ve done with Arron this year is not just bring him in for one or two games … we’ve had him all year.

“We know the rules and haven’t cheated the system…”