Eastlake's Adam Tett, left and Wests-UC captain Ben Oakley. Photo: Graham Tidy
Twenty years after Eastlake was in the most recent Canberra grade cricket final under lights, the Demons have the chance to end their wretched luck in one-day deciders.
After eight appearances without a single piece of silverware to show for it, Eastlake will be out to end its miserable run when it takes on Wests-UC in Sunday's John Gallop Cup final at Manuka Oval.
The new lights will be switched on for the first time for a local fixture since the 1992-93 grand final was held at Canberra Stadium. On that day, Eastlake, known as South Canberra at the time, went down to Queanbeyan by five runs.
While the Demons have a pair of two-day premierships, in 1993-94 and 2004-05, they have continued to be the bridesmaids in the 50-over format, including losing to Queanbeyan in last year's final.
Eastlake captain Adam Tett hopes to draw on the experience of the two survivors from his club's most recent success in order to upset Wests-UC, which has gone through the one-day competition undefeated.
''Michael Shaw and Pete O'Callaghan are still in the side and are very valuable members of what we do,'' Tett said. ''Obviously we went down last year, so this year is a new opportunity. The boys are reasonably confident, but saying that, Wests have been the benchmark.''
Wests-UC is chasing its third one-day title, but its first since 1998-99. Captain Ben Oakley has been behind his team's dominance this season, taking a competition-leading 46 wickets at an average of 9.43 across all formats. ''We've had the same sort of group of guys together for the last few years, so we've been progressing towards something like this,'' he said. ''They're ready to take the next step.''
Eastlake also has a strong bowling attack, with Danushka Wijesundara (38 wickets at 10.34) and Indian left-arm paceman Kunal Lal claiming eight wickets in the team's outright victory against North Canberra Gungahlin last weekend.
Wests-UC recorded a comfortable victory when the two teams met before Christmas, but it's hard to read much into that result given it was on a raging greentop at Kingston as opposed to the batting-friendly conditions at Manuka.
Both teams have attempted to adapt to the unfamiliar night-time conditions by training under lights this week.
In the Douglas Cup on Saturday, Queanbeyan hosts Wests-UC at Freebody Oval in the feature match.
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