After linking with the green and golds ahead of the 2012-13 summer no one in Orange took more wickets than CYMS' former seamer Chris Novak, who's 176 scalps between then and this season's Bathurst-Orange Inter-District Cricket reinvigoration came at just 15.51 apiece.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
So, naturally, his decision to switch things up and roll out leg-spinners full-time this summer was met with skepticism, certainly by those outside CYMS' camp at the very least.
Whether he can maintain consistency is certainly a long-term question, but there's no denying the fact he and his side have reaped rewards in the opening two rounds of the season.
Until I moved to Bathurst for university I actually played all my cricket as an opening batter who bowled leg-spin.
- CYMS' Chris Novak
Novak showed plenty of promise in taking four scalps across his side's round one win over Kinross and backed that up in a massive way against Rugby Union, taking a bagful against the Bulldogs.
Novak finished with 6-89 against the Bulldogs to jack his tally up to 10 wickets through the first month of the season, they've come at an average of 22, miserly by any leg-spinner's standards.
He did say he'd give those wickets up in exchange for a victory though. Despite Novak's showing CYMS fell 140 short of a win at Bathurst's Morse Park 1, being bowled out 202 in reply to Rugby Union's 9-342 declared.
"Of course, you'd always prefer to win the game than do well individually," Novak said.
"They are coming out pretty well so far though, I'm just trying to do a lot of work, a lot of practice to make sure I'm able to play my part for the team."
In a way his hand was forced in terms of taking up cricket's toughest art.
Without tweaker Ed Wright this summer CYMS' spin options were limited, at best, and Novak had sporadically trotted out some leg-spin late in games last summer, usually in his second spell after opening up with seam.
The decision made sense in that regard and it's definitely extended his playing days - anyone who's ever seen Novak strap up, pull on his knee braces, douse himself in Dencorub and pop a few painkillers before a game can tell you how tough bowling seamers has been on his body over the years.
"It's definitely a lot easier, a lot less impact, on the body. I'm not having to wear those knee braces and that sort of thing to bowl now and I actually think that really helps me enjoy my cricket a lot more," he said.
"When you do something for so long it can become a bit stale and this is a really good new challenge and it's reinvigorated me in a way I think, I'm really enjoying it so far."
He's no rookie though, he hasn't taken up wrist-spin with no experience under his belt and having some prior knowledge has been a massive boost. While it's not quite like riding a bike, it certainly helps.
"Until I moved to Bathurst for university I actually played all my cricket as an opening batter who bowled leg-spin," Novak laughed.
"So I do have a bit of experience bowling leggies and that does help because there's a bit of knowledge there to fall back on."
Novak picked up five of his six wickets on the first day of CYMS' clash with Rugby Union, trapping Brad Glasson (11) and Chris Albon (0) in front before luring Jono Colley (15) and Evan Jones (8) into false shots and clean bowling James Tristum (0).
The Bulldogs finished day one 8-323, thanks mainly to Jameel (91) and Imran Qureshi's (58) 142-run opening stand, and Novak picked up one more scalp before they declared on Saturday afternoon.
"It was a tough deck to bowl on, a lot of the time the batters were able to just prop on the front foot and bunt it back or do what they wanted with it," Novak said.
"In saying that Jameel and Imran both batted really well last week and they set the game up for Rugby Union.
"I definitely still thought we had a really good chance of chasing that down though and we started well with a good opening partnership but we lost wickets in clumps in the middle. We were in trouble too, but Tom West (69) fired and some of the tail-end guys provided good support.
"That's promising to see the lower order do that, we probably just needed a big score at the top."
Novak actually chipped in with an unbeaten 25 at the end of CYMS' innings too although in contrast to the competition's three previous weeks, there weren't as many stand-out individual performers on Saturday's second day of round two.
Nine bats did notch half-tons, with Cavaliers' Matt Corben and Bailey Ferguson the best. They built on their respective, unbeaten scores of 71 and 38 to finish with 89 and 71 respectively, leading their side's win over Bathurst City.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...