With a very interrupted season it was amazing there was enough cricket played to warrant a finals series in the Cairns Cricket competition.

But to the Port Douglas Mudcrabs Senior cricket club's credit both the B and C Grade teams made the semi final which was played on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.

The Port Douglas B Grade had played in the last two final series and managed to make it again in 2010/2011 under the new leadership of Nathan King, and were looking to go back to back after winning last season's two day final.

Things started well for the Muddies when the skipper won the toss and elected to bowl with his star studded bowling attack of Ben Vikionkorpi and Matt Mitchell to start off the demolition.

Vikonkorpi bowled a gem in his fourth and eighth over of the game after some very tight bowling and some sensible batting from Mulgrave, who only had to draw the match to move into the final.

Mitchell picked up his first of three wickets in his sixth over when the score was 2 for 17. Benny V then managed his second wicket of the innings getting Etherington caught in front LBW on three.

From there on it was the Darryl Mison Show which started from his first ball when he bowled a magnificent off cutter to the dangerous looking Phillips which removed his off stump.

Mison's next two wickets came in his fourth and seventh overs removing Rodman and then the devastating Johnson who was on 86 at the time and who proved to be a big thorn in the Muddies side.

Mison's fourth wicket came in his ninth over when Mulgraves score was 140 and his fifth and final wicket capped of a great bowling spell removing Mulgraves last wicket on 146. Mison finished with the great figures of 5 for 39 off his 10.3 overs.

The batting innings for the Muddies left a lot to be desired and a lot of soul searching for the top six who could only manage a total 79 between them. Only a magnificent 66 not out coming from Simeion Migilorenza who was the only shinning light in the Muddies dismal batting display of 107 in their first innings.

Mulgrave's second batting innings was rocked early again by man of the match Darryl Mison who opened the bowling innings with Vikionkorpi and picked up a wicket in his first over removing Carmen caught behind on 0.

A partnership followed between Coleman and Ethrington from Mulgrave which unsettled the bowling not from run scoring but lack of shot play as Mulgrave were now batting for time on the second day of the semi final.

After this tough period the wickets fell on a gradual basis with Mison again being the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 33 and Mitchell finishing with 3 for 23 off his 10 overs, after Varcoe cleaned up the tale with 2 for 1 and bowling out Mulgrave for 123. This set Port Douglas a total of 163 in their second innings to win the match outright after Mulgrave won first innings points.

Again the batting performance of the Muddies in the second innings was nowhere near up to scratch and with the exception of Joyce (35) and Vikionkorpi (33) the batters did not produce when it was needed due to some very poor shot selection with McConnell and Varcoe standing out in this regard.

Port Douglas was again bowled out for an embarrassing total off 102, letting Mulgrave progress into the final against Rovers this weekend and the following weekend at Griffith's Park in Cairns.

The Port Douglas C Grade side made the trip up to Tolga to play Atherton on pitch that had only had a couple of days preparation due to lack of ground availability and it was an amazing job by the curators to have a pitch ready at all, at Morrow Park.

Steve Doble (19) won the toss and elected to bat first and when he and the Face of Carnivale, Sam Evens (30) put on a partnership of 42 for the first wicket, things were looking up for the Port Douglas team.

This was then backed up with a partnership of 20 with Doble and Cody (19) at the crease but when the skipper fell with the score on 63 that was the end of the partnerships as the rest of the batters could only make 40 more runs before the team was bowled out for 102.

Doble opened the bowling innings with Mat Schiesser and Simon Cody, with both bowlers bowling 18 and 15 overs each. Only one batsmen made it hard on the bowlers, but it was the fielding that let the team down with a number of dropped catches and one batsmen in Edwards being dropped three times before he was finally dismissed by Schiesser on 64. Schiesser finished with 2 for 31.

Cody was the pick of the bowlers and picked up his first five wicket haul finishing with 5 for 48 when Atherton where bowled out for 123, 21 runs ahead of Port, and game on!

Port Douglas went in to their second innings with the plan in mind being to chase down the 21 runs needed to get in front and then make as many quick runs as possible before declaring and going for an outright win.

Again Doble (11) and Evans (28) opened the batting and again they put on a healthy opening stand of 41.

Coming in at number three was Cody and did't he play the innings of his life with great shot selection and on his way to his maiden 50 he and Matt Coombes put on a partnership of of over 100 with Coombes also playing a very good innings for his 44 runs.

This great partnership gave Doble the chance to declare with enough time in the day to have a shot at bowling out Atherton who had to chase 122 runs to win the game.

A gallant effort was put in by all the bowlers in the second innings but unfortunately that man Tom Edwards from Atherton was in the way and Atherton managed to get the runs with only three wickets down and Edwards not out on 42.

It was great effort by all involved in the C Grade team and a great finish to the season that saw them move into the finals this season for the first time, after finishing in last place the previous season.

Well done Muddies and we look forward to seeing more great improvement next season. Go Muddies . . . .