BATHURST City and ORC weren’t able to face off in Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade action on Saturday thanks to the previous night’s barrage of rain.
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It denied the Redbacks a chance to build on a big first round success and prevented the Tigers from attempting to bounce back from a defeat.
Joey Coughlan was one of the Bathurst City players stopped from taking part in the contest at the Sportsground.
Saturday’s match would have been a chance for Coughlan to try and build up some momentum after he produced a dominant innings of 54 not out in his side’s eight-wicket opening round victory over St Pat’s Old Boys.
Coughlan said a second match would have given his team a chance to see how well their practice had paid off.
“I was really hoping this season there wouldn’t be any interruptions, especially because there’s no byes now,” he said.
“There wasn’t much we could take away from a game like that. Ormey [Ben Orme] bowled really well for a five-for and we caught the target down just two wickets. Some of our players like Matt Willis and Trent Hemsworth didn’t have a chance to bat yet.
“I was really hoping I could get out there and try to put on a few more runs.
“We hadn’t had many fielding sessions but we didn't drop a catch in our opening game, which was good. We had a bit of work in the nets and we know what we need to focus on.”
Coughlan said City would have likely faced a big test against ORC.
“They’re a bit of a bogey side for us. It’s the kind of match that would have been good for us to get out of the way early in the season,” he said.
“They had a few players out in the first week so they would have been keen to play.”
ORC would have welcomed back Wayne Sellers to their ranks for the match against Redbacks, what would have been a boost to their batting stocks considering he was recently named in the Mitchell squad.
The Tigers would have been aiming to get some revenge on City after losing both the one and two-day match-ups against Redbacks last season.
Captain of ORC Trent Fitzpatrick said the rained out match is bringing back some bad memories of the 2015-16 season.
“We were looking forward to it. Last year we only got in seven games so I’m hoping that this year it’s not going to be like that again,” he said.
“We got on to the Sportsground at 10am and parts of it were underwater.
“It’s a shame … because with Wayne back our batting was definitely strengthened.”
City will now take on Centennials Bulls this Saturday at the Sportsground while ORC are preparing to face St Pat’s Old Boys at Morse Park 1.
