Regardless of the scoreline, whether it’s a 100-point win or a one-point victory, all the reigning champions need to do to claim a second straight title and fifth in the last seven years is defeat Orange High.

Lose, and the title race would become anyone’s, Bathurst’s destiny would fall into Orange and Dubbo’s hands in the final leg next week, at Dubbo.

Hornets skipper Elijah Smyth said earlier in the week he’s certain the black and golds will provide stiffer competition for Bathurst than Dubbo did, and Bathurst’s Fred Gunning echoed that sentiment.

Last year’s tie between Orange and Bathurst was decided by just four points, Gunning says he’s expecting a similarly thrilling battle this week.

“They’re strong competition, so it’ll be close again,” he said, his basketball side’s effort will play a big role too.

Bathurst’s basketball side, led by Gunning, Jack Hogan and Jacob Molkentin, thumped Dubbo 71-39 last week, but with Orange having Bathurst Goldminers and NSW Country guard Kobe Mansell running the point the Hornets will no doubt be far tougher.

Even so, Gunning – who dropped 22 points in last week’s win – still says his side is hoping to “smack” the Hornets, despite the latter outfit dominating the sport in recent years.

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“Last week we were pretty strong, smacking Dubbo and we’re hoping to do the same against Orange this week,” Gunning fired.

“We have to go in the same way, prepare the same way and hope we get a win.

“Kobe Mansell is [there] and I play basketball with him, so there’ll be some friendly competition. We’ll target him for sure. He’ll be on our list.” 

Bathurst’s girls’ football team also had a solid win over Dubbo last Friday and will be hoping for another strong win when they play Orange, according to Emileah Cossu.

“We’re pretty confident because we’ve beaten them in our (NSW Combined High School) Knockout rounds 9-0,” she said.”

“However, we’re not going to get over-confident like we did against Dubbo.

“They scored the first goal against us last week and our team basically switched on and were like, ‘nup, we’re not going to lose that’. It become a lot more intense and we ended up winning 4-1.

“We just want to keep our form going against Orange and keep their score to nil.

“They’ve lost a few of their key players, so this year it’s going to be a bit easier but we’ll go hard.” 

Orange High will welcome Bathurst’s troops at 9am, before tennis kicks off the opening day at 9.15am, at Orange Ex-Services Tennis Club.

The boys’ and girls’ football follows that at 11.30am and 1pm respectively and the athletics rounds out the first day’s sporting events from 2.15pm, all three events are at Orange High.

The Mulvey Cup debating is also on Thursday, kicking off at 5.30pm in Orange High’s library.

Basketball kicks off Friday’s second day at 9.30am and netball follows at 11am, both at Sir Neville Howse Stadium, before rugby league at 12.30pm at Wade Park.

Hockey is the leg’s main event, finishing the tie off at Orange Hockey Centre from 2.15pm.