Run by the Orange District Cricket Association, the Redbacks are one of three clubs from the Bathurst District Cricket Association who have signed up for the Friday night competition.

Redbacks won one of three games last season, but skipper Matt Willis said he and his team-mates have learned from that.

“We played Bonnor Cup last year as well and I thought we were just a little bit behind the eight-ball with how to play that game, there’s a little bit more that goes into it than just whacking fours and sixes,” he said.

“I thought the Orange teams set really clever fields and they ran really well between wickets, which was something we didn’t do against them.”

One thing Redbacks have done this time around to help their chances is recruit Rugby Union skipper Sam Macpherson as a marquee player.

Willis saw firsthand last season the value of having such a player in a Bonnor Cup squad.

“We played against CYMS last year and they beat us by eight runs and we didn’t have Ormey [Ben Orme] or Hemsy [Trent Hemsworth] and they had Michael Delaney playing for them, who is a great cricketer from Canberra,” he said.

“So we thought, let’s do this properly, get in a marquee player and have a good crack at it. So Sam Macpherson has come on board and we’ll see how it goes.

“Having Sammy as our marquee player, he’ll come into our team and give us a bit of punch as well because he hits it hard and can hit weird spots as well.

“We are actually looking pretty good this year. We play on Friday and we’ve got everyone available and that’s something we didn’t have last year, we never had our full side available and it showed with a couple of our results.” 

Bathurst City will meet Orange City on Friday night at Wade Park from 6.30pm, with ORC to do battle with Kinross in their opener on October 20 and Centennials Bulls to face Centrals on October 27.