Three of those victories were comfortably, one was thrilling and the other was a complete shock to the competition, but there's far more to all five games than what you'll see on the scorecard.

Here's the five things we learned from the opening round of the 2019-20 season:

Centennials provided the summer's first massive boilover by beating the highly-touted City Colts in round one, a pretty incredible start to a competition they, initially, didn't even intend to play in amid uncertainty regarding player numbers.

Fortunately, they did end up mustering enough players to backflip on their decision and nominate for the reinvigorated, combined competition and after just one round they've now won as many games as they did in the 2018-19 summer.

Even without the likes of Josh Toole and Andrew Brown - the pair had committed to City Colts and St Pat's Old Boys after it emerged Bulls wouldn't nominate - the Bulls' band of underdogs bested the pre-season title favourites by 53 runs, showing enough to suggest they could well and truly exceed expectations this summer.

It'd be easy to argue City Colts' powerful top order not cashing in on their starts was the main reason behind the side's shock loss to Centennials Bulls in the opening round, but the fact is they shouldn't have needed 281 for victory at Morse Park 1.

It's an tried-and-true adage that verges on cringe-worthy these days, but catches do win matches.

City Colts dropped upward of half a dozen genuine chances on the first day of their season-opener and that allowed the resurgent Bulls to knock up 7-258 before stumps, taking those opportunities and adding 22 more on Saturday afternoon to post a competitive total.

In fact, Friday night's rain adding some juice to the wicket actually meant the Bulls' 9-280 declared was far more than competitive as Colts struggled to get going and ultimately fell 53 short.

Had they held their chances on day one and been chasing fewer for victory, you can just about bank on City Colts winning that game.

When you're batting on a Wade Park strip that's playing like the Great Western Highway and offering next to nothing for seamers and spinners there's just no excuse for almost being bowled out twice in one day, even if you have been forced to bat a player down.

Orange City had piled on 4-347 the week prior but Centrals managed to lose 15 wickets at Wade Park on Saturday, and although they avoided the outright loss by stumps they were still 88 shy of the Warriors' day one mark.

Nine of those 15 dismissals were bowled or leg before, so it seems they've basically just missed straight ones all afternoon.

Granted it highlights Orange City executing their plans to attack the stumps well, but it's not a particularly good start to the season for a side that's had plenty of issues posting big scores consistently.

Rowan Dray batted for 47 overs in his unbeaten second dig knock, for just 13 runs. He was trying to stave off an outright, but a little bit more of that kind of resilience, patience and discipline would go a long way for the red and blacks.

Kinross got beaten by eight wickets and on face value alone that's a borderline thrashing but there looks to be plenty of reason for hope in the students' camp this summer.

One is James Larkin, obviously, he dominated for the Central West Wranglers and banged out a half ton on Saturday in his first dig for the two blues, as they looked to avoid a potential outright loss to CYMS.

His influence, composure and experience will be crucial to the side's hopes and to the development of young bats like Will Luelf and Harry May, both of whom proved they've got plenty of potential to score big runs.

CHECK OUT THE BOIDC'S LEADING RUN-SCORERS...

May knocked up a half century in Kinross' first innings of 191 and Luelf added a promising 42 in that dig, before backing up with a half-century as the students worked their way to 3-165 after being sent back in on day two.

The students' biggest problem is they've not had bats that go big in recent years, they've got a handful that have proved they're capable of that this summer and a Kinross side that can post scores of 250, even 300-plus would be a dangerous one.

Cavaliers were bested by a determined captain's knock from Adam Ryan, but Gus Cumming made a big impression with 5-47 on debut for his new club and together with fellow tweaker Mitch Black (3-69) he almost bowled his side to victory.

With Hugh Middleton in the mix too maroons skipper Matt Corben made no secret of the fact his side will once again look to its bumper spinning stocks to strike and Cumming, a former Kinross captain, has the potential to be the best recruit of the summer.

But Cavaliers' distinct lack of pace might prove a stumbling block.

In the right conditions Mark Maybin can gas it up, certainly, but for the most part he, Wes Lummis and Alex Wiegold aren't pushing much past medium-pace, which is no slight on their ability because they're all excellent bowlers in their own right.

But if the spinners aren't getting much purchase and there's not much on offer in terms of sideways movement from the flat decks expected all summer, well, throwing down mediums all afternoon might become an exercise in futility against the batter-heavy sides of the competition.