A rule breach by Bundoora United has seen the club lose premiership points with just three weeks left in the Diamond Valley Cricket Association’s Barclay Shield regular season.
The DVCA confirmed that a rule breach had led to a change in the results of five matches involving United. An association spokesman said United had played an ineligible player in the five games.
United has won three matches for the season but the points earned in each of those matches have been stripped.
The club received minus two points for each of the five games in which the rule was breached and now sits on the bottom of the ladder on minus seven points.
The teams which played United in the five rounds in question were each given whatever the maximum points that had been awarded in that round.
Old Paradians/St Francis and Bundoora, who both lost to United, were given six points each.
Mernda and Rosanna were each given 10 points.
Lower Eltham, who beat United, did not get any extra points because six points were the most awarded for that round.
With three of the 12 teams in the competition to be relegated at the end of the season, the changes have a big impact on the ladder.
Old Paradians are the big winners and are now fourth, only percentage behind third-placed Epping.
The change of results sees Research Eltham Collegians and Bundoora now five points clear of 10th-placed Mernda and the relegation zone.
