THE unluckiest of dismissals doubled as the final nail in the Clarence River cricket coffin in their interdistrict match against Coffs Harbour on Sunday.

After superb innings from Coffs batsmen Trent Mitchell (71) and Craig Howarth (62*), Clarence was set 253 for victory.

Despite half centuries from opener Tim Tilse (53) and Matt Kroehnert (57), Clarence fell 65 runs short to be bowled out for 187. Clarence's chances seemed to rest on Kroehnert's performance after he battled his way to a half century.

It all came unstuck when was on 57, after he was run out at the non-strikers end.

"Matty Kroehnert was on fire," spinner Doug Harris said.

"He was batting like he was going to get the runs in the next five overs.

"Then he got run out at the non-strikers end and that broke our backs."

Harris said Clarence was on track to reach the target but regular wickets came back to haunt them.

"We were scoring at a pretty good rate and we would've got the runs but we kept losing wickets," Harris said. "It would've been good to restrict them to about

Harris put the loss down to a lack of luck with a hint of over-confidence.

"I think we got carried away a bit," Harris said.

"It was a really good wicket and the ball just flew if you got a hold of it.

"We played quite a few tired looking shots out there and we paid for it."

Harris and Brad Chard led the way for the Clarence bowlers, finishing with figures of 1-30 and 1-37 from their 10 overs respectively.

Chard was unlucky not to come away with more scalps despite regularly beating the batsmen.

"Chardy beat the bat about three times every over," Harris said.

"He had a lot of pace but just couldn't get the nick."