Oh, two Bathurst outfits were fighting it out for Orange District Cricket Association’s Royal Hotel Cup too, in the last decider that didn’t feature at least one side from Orange.

Now, more than two decades on, that will finally happen again when Centennials Bulls and Bathurst City Redbacks clash in Friday night’s Twenty20 grand final.

Coincidentally, Centennials won the 1995-96 decider, defeating St Pat’s.

Naturally Bulls skipper Andrew Brown is hoping his side can claim its second Royal Hotel Cup title on Friday night and, in his eyes, playing another Bathurst side is a massive advantage.

"It definitely does help when you know pretty much everyone on the opposite team,” Brown said.

"Obviously they've got their danger players like Ben Orme and Trent Hemsworth (but) they're probably not as strong of a Twenty20 team as what they are here on a Saturday but they're still very strong all-round.”

When talking about Redbacks in Bathurst District Cricket Association’s regular competition, “strong” is probably an understatement – they’ve won four of the last five titles and are well on track for another.

But Brown’s right, in terms of T20 cricket.

Redbacks didn’t make the finals last summer, their first since leaving the competition after 2006-07. 

They didn’t look likely to make this year’s either, after going 2-2 through the preliminary stage and being rolled for 68 against CYMS.

Not that Bathurst City opening bat Joey Coughlan is worried about that leading in though, especially after Redbacks proved what they’re capable of and reversed that result against CYMS in the semi-final.

“Guys are scoring runs, guys are taking wickets. It’s all coming together,” Coughlan said.

"It's all about form. If you’ve got form in your two-day cricket, that will flow into everything else.

”We’re feeling confident, (especially after) knocking off the undefeated [CYMS] last week, doing it quite well and dealing with the pressure better then they did.

“Finals cricket is our kind of cricket, no matter what the competition is. [Our big game players] stood up last Friday night in the semi-final and got the job done, there’s no reason why we can’t do it again this week.”

Coughlan knows just how dangerous Centennials can be though, considering he’s been on the wrong end of plenty of Bulls beltings in his times.

"If Centennials turn up, they can beat anyone, but some days they turn up and it's very much the other way around,” Coughlan said.

“But with (marquee player) Mick Curtale in their team, it gives them another edge and Josh Toole, you never what kind of mood he's going to be in. If he gets off to a flyer, it'll be hard for us to bring it back. 

"But we've got some firepower ourselves, Matt Willis, Ben Orme and Trent Hemsworth, and we’ve got a full strength side.”

The Bulls do too though, although Percy Raveneau is in doubt with a hamstring twinge.

Friday night’s decider kicks off at 6.30pm, at Wade Park.