MANNING Cricket president Steve Campbell admits it will take a minor miracle for the association's First X1 to make the Mid North Coast inter-district final.
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The team was forced to forfeit last Sunday's opening round clash against Macleay, scheduled for South Kempsey due to a number of players being unavailable.
Mr Campbell had hoped the Mid North Coast Council would postpone the game, giving Manning a chance of featuring in the final early next year. Three associations, Manning, Hastings and Macleay contest the inter-district. "It looks as though the game will be called a forfeit now,'' Mr Campbell. "We haven't heard anything different from the Mid North Coast.''
Mr Campbell said rescheduling the match wouldn't be straight forward due to a busy representative program at junior and senior level.
"There are junior rep games to consider, while there's also a Country Cup, where individual clubs can play in a state-wide tournament, so the calendar is pretty full,'' he said.
He said it was unfortunate that last Sunday happened to coincide with a number of Manning players being unavailable through injury or work commitments.
"It also didn't help that we were a bit late in getting the draw around. That was caused by the merger with the Mid North Coast seniors and juniors which took up a lot of time,'' he said.
"That'll change next year.''
Mr Campbell said for Manning to make the final they would have to rely on Hastings thrashing Macleay and then Manning would have to beat Hastings.
