AN eight-team second grade competition and another change to the points system will be the things to keep an eye on when the Bathurst District Cricket Association competitions get underway this afternoon.

First and second grade, along with presidents cup, kick off today while third grade will get started next weekend.

“It is good to see that we don’t have that bye in the second grade competition, though it doesn’t necessarily solve all the problems,” BDCA president Campbell Graham said in reference to the return of a stand-alone Bushrangers side.

“We don’t want to be weakening the competition in order to alleviate the bye, but it is hard to predict what will happen at the moment. We just have to wait and see how Blayney and the Bushrangers go without being a merged club.”

There are some changes to the system from last season, with two-day first innings wins now worth seven points, plus four for an outright win. A first innings win followed by an outright loss will be worth only four.

Bonus points will only be given in the second innings, with wickets now worth 0.25 rather than 0.2.

Aside from the latter change, it is the same scoring system as two seasons ago. 

However, the option remains from last season for sides to bat as long as they want, with a draw – and therefore no points at all – still a possibility.

“One of the reasons we bumped the wicket bonus points up is to encourage teams bowling in the second innings to keep at it and not lose interest as soon as they go a little while without a wicket,” Graham explained.

“The other was because we felt that if you bowled a team out for exactly 200, you are inclined to feel like you are on top, yet you only get the same amount of bonus points as the batting side.

“If you bowled a team out for 250, it would be a bit more even, so we decided to weight the bonuses for wickets a bit differently.

“There were only two drawn games across firsts, seconds and presidents cup last season, so the measures we put in to try and encourage more positive cricket worked as far as we’re concerned.”

Graham suggested that last season’s first grade grand finalists Bathurst City would be the team to beat in 2015-16, having strengthened their side with Matt Lawson and Trent Hemsworth, but said a case could be made for just about everyone.

“I think Blayney started to turn a corner last season and if they can get a full summer out of Jameel Qureshi they will win more games and I think they will push for a top four position,” he said.

“Colts have lost some players, but are always thereabouts. St Pat’s have a young team that are on the way up, Rugby made the finals last year and ORC have a strong batting line-up.

“The one I haven’t mentioned, Oxford Centennials, have probably relied on a few players in the past to win them a lot of games, but they were starting to get more contributions last season as well. It is very wide open.

“But it is fair to say that Redbacks are probably the team to beat.”