They played each other in last season’s grand final last year and now Bathurst City and Rugby Union will play each other, on Saturday, in the most important game of the 2017-18 Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade season so far.
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The winner of the match will claim the minor premiership title and a top two spot, providing the security of a second chance should it lose its opening finals match.
A first innings or outright win for Rugby Union will give it the minor premiership title.
Anything else however, will mean Redbacks will claim a third consecutive minor title and a sixth in seven seasons.
Both teams could fall as low as third if they lose but that would require either St Pat’s Old Boys or City Colts claiming an outright win against the other.
Redbacks will come into Saturday’s game at full strength – a rare sight from a team that has struggled to field its best XI – and come into the game on the back of a Royal Hotel Cup semi-final match against CYMS on Friday night.
Skipper Matt Willis knows how important Saturday’s game will be to the eventual semi-final spots.
“We might play them the first week of the semis. It would be good to put in a good performance and beat them,” he said.
“Basically, I’ll just be excited that for the first this season, we’ll be at first strength.
“We us being short in first grade, that makes seconds short, then thirds. It really impacts the whole club.
Basically, I’ll just be excited that for the first this season, we'll be at first strength.
- Bathurst City skipper Matt Willis
“With second grade getting an outright win on the weekend, that’s put them into the fourth. I know thirds are not too far off the four. Hopefully with us being at full strength, they can be at full strength and can push for all three of us to make the semis.”
Redback’s Daniel Carter will be unavailable for the first day, on February 24, in first grade but is expected to return on the second day of action, on March 3.
“We’ll just have to find someone to fill that gap in week one but other than that, that’s our best XI.”
Rugby Union will be hard to beat, having won its past two games and six of its past seven after opening the season with two straight defeats.
The minor premier deciding gane will be played at Brooke Moore Oval, starting at 1.30pm.