THEY have 11 grand final appearances between them since the reformation of the Bathurst District Cricket Association in 2007 but only one will be adding to their total after this weekend.
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Bathurst City and City Colts boast three premierships each over that past decade, and the best performer in this weekend’s BDCA preliminary final between the two clubs has the opportunity to add to their impressive history.
Each club have their reason to feel confident going into their sudden death meeting at Morse Park 1, as Bathurst City aim to build off a sublime regular season while City Colts boast impressive recent form.
Redbacks found it tough to get going on a difficult batting deck in their major semi-final loss to Rugby Union.
“We probably didn’t get into that game mentally,” Redbacks’ Joey Coughlan said.
“It was tough batting on a wet wicket with an hour and a half to go, so when we got to 3-50 at the end of the day we thought we had a shot.”
Bathurst City now have the chance to put their five-wicket loss to Bulldogs behind them when they make their return to Morse Park.
“We always look forward to playing Colts. There’s a good rivalry between our players and a lot of us have played representative cricket together,” he said.
“We have to focus on improving our batting and dedication to our wicket. Our bowling has definitely been our strength this year but we still have the power in our first six, seven batsmen to put 300-plus scores on. We just haven’t found that consistency this year.”
Colts come into the match off a 149-run victory in the minor semi-final against Centennials Bulls, led by a century from captain Dan Casey.
On top of that Colts also won the only meeting this season between the two sides – a thriller which came down to the final over.
Casey said the Colts-Redbacks match often delivers cracking battles.
“We’ve played against them a lot, especially in these big games, but have only played them the once this year. The others have been washed out, and I hope this weekend isn’t the same,” he said.
“They’ve lost some players over the last few years, as have we. There’s still a lot of senior players in their team who just know how to win matches.
“We’ve got our own core of senior guys and a couple of juniors who have come through.
“On paper there’s very little difference between our teams. It’s just about who turns up to play on the day.”
The preliminary final begins Saturday from 1.30pm.
