Orange and Bathurst cricket clubs have approved in principle a radical new draw for the return of the combined Bathurst Orange Inter District Competition.
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Separate two-day and one-day competitions will be held with the aim of reducing the amount of travel the five Orange clubs and four Bathurst clubs will have to make during the season.
Under a plan put to the clubs at a meeting on Monday night all nine clubs will play each other once in the main two-day competition before a top-four finals series is held.
We're going with the two-day competition as the main competition.
- Mark Frecklington, ODCA president
A separate one-day 50-overs competition will be held, with a pool of four Bathurst teams playing each other once, and a pool of four Orange teams also squaring off against each other a single time. The two pool winners will meet in the final.
Orange District Cricket Association president Mark Frecklington said Kinross would field a team in the two-day competition but not the one-day competition.
"We're going with the two-day competition as the main competition," he said.
"We've drafted up an example draw without team names in it. I think we've got it right."
Frecklington said the example draw would mean the most travelling would be done by two Bathurst clubs who would have to come to Orange for three two-day games.
Under the plan the 2019-2020 BOIDC season will start on Saturday, October 12, with the first round of the Orange one-day competition games. Bathurst teams will not play that weekend as it clashes with the Bathurst 1000 car racing event.
The two-day competition will start the following week and run until the Christmas-New Year break.
Frecklington said the rest of the one-day games would be played throughout January. That would be followed by the resumption of the two-day competition until its final series.
A date and venue for the one-day final has yet to be determined.
Frecklington said the Royal Hotel Cup Twenty20 competition would continue as a stand-alone event to be played at Wade Park on Friday nights.
He said the new draw had received the approval of the nine clubs: Orange City, Cavaliers, Kinross, Centrals and CYMS from Orange, and Bathurst City, City Colts, St Pat's Old Boys and Rugby Union from Bathurst.
Frecklington said a committee would be formed to run the joint competition.
Bathurst District Cricket Association secretary Brad Broes said the joint competition would add a bit of life to what was a stale BDCA competition in 2018-19.
"The main driver and something that was agreed upon by most people at our meeting was that this would increase competitive spirit and add a bit of spice to our cricket," he said.
"It's safe to say cricket here became a bit stale. We had three or four outrights in two-dayers last year and in first grade that's not on. We'll have competitive sides coming across."
Broes said they were also looking forward to the one day format.
"We're keen to try the 50-over format. We've only really played 40 overs in our one-day competition," he said.
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David Fitzsimons
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
