Any more or any less could have made scheduling difficult, but the even number of squads works out nicely.

Last summer's Bathurst Orange Inter District competition featured the same amount of squads, with Kinross' departure and Oberon's entry the only adjustment this time around.

Kick-off on October 9 would Frecklington's ideal start date, but he understands commencement won't be possible until a statewide 80 per cent double vaccination rate is reached.

"We're waiting to hear from the government but realistically, we'll probably be waiting until late October or early November," he said.

"We're just excited to play cricket and we'll do that in any time frame that we've got."

There's no plan for the competition to play make-up games or jam fixtures in for lost time. Every week lost will mean one less round for teams, which Frecklington is perfectly fine with... as long as they can play a finals series.

"We'll make do with what we've got this year," he said.

"It was obviously hard the year before last because it wiped out our post-season."

While there's 10 sides in the BOIDC competition, a dozen outfits will return for the T20 Royal Hotel Cup, with Lithgow and Kinross the add-ons.

Rugby Union shapes as one of the favourites to take out the short-form title after they put together a cracking campaign in 2020-21.

As for the top grade, Frecklington says the top four from last year will be hard to frazzle, but isn't overlooking the sides jockeying for finals spots.

"I think those top sides will be in the mix again... it'll be hard to knock them off," he said.

"Oberon has talked about having a reasonable side this year, and it doesn't too much to go from being in the mix to up there and contending.

"St Pat's will add Nic Broes and that will make them even harder to beat than they were last year."

The likes of St Pat's, premiers Orange City, Cavaliers, and Rugby Union were all at the point end of the table, with squads like City Colts and Bathurst City biting at their heels.

Centennials, CYMS and Centrals will all want to have better campaigns, while Oberon will be keen to make a statement in its return to the competition.

As for the first-grade format, there will be a very similar balance of one and two-day cricket.

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