With the Ashes causing cricket lovers to bumble into work bleary-eyed and shadow bat as much as Steve Smith, Mark Frecklington is excited for the 2019-2020 cricket season.
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However, Bathurst and Orange coming back together for the Bathurst and Orange Inter-District Competition is a far bigger hook for the president of the Orange association than Nathan Lyon ripping through the English middle order.
The competition, which was locked in a few months ago, is on the brink of confirming a fixture for the summer.
I'm happy to see it all coming together, I think it'll be really good to watch.
- Orange District Cricket Association president Mark Frecklington
At this stage, the season will begin on October 19, the week after the Bathurst 1000, with each side lining up for nine two-day games, facing each other side once.
"Think that's the way everyone wanted it to be, we couldn't everyone playing each other once in a two-day game and a one-day game but it wouldn't fit so we had to compromise," Frecklington said.
"Everyone was reasonably happy with it."
The finals will is proposed to run as a top four system across three weeks, with each final taking place over Saturday and Sunday.
"There's a draft fixture we've thrown together which will be voted on by members on Monday night but I can't see any reason why it won't pass," Frecklington said.
Frecklington said it was fantastic to have had Centennials Bulls join as the fifth Bathurst side to sign up for the inter-town competition, which was confirmed last week making the league a round 10 team setup and eliminated clubs facing a fortnight-long bye.
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"As much as a bye isn't the end of the world, it's nice [for clubs] to have cricket on every weekend," he said.
He also gave a ringing endorsement of the merger, which will expand the exposure to top-level cricket for those in both Bathurst and Orange and only be good for cricket in the region.
"I'm happy to see it all coming together, I think it'll be really good to watch," he said.
"We all know who the best team in Orange was last year and who the best team in Bathurst was but it'll be good to bring them all together."
Frecklington, who is also Western Zone Premier League president, confirmed a Mid-West team consisting of players from Mudgee and Gulgong would be entering the inter-town competition for the 2019-2020 season.
They'd be the sixth team behind Orange, Bathurst, Dubbo, Parkes and Cowra, eliminating the bye from the WZPL.
The first ball for the WZPL is likely to be bowled the week before domestic competition begins, with October 12 the proposed start date for the inter-town clashes.
The Royal Hotel Cup will return in the same format in 2019, but Frecklington said much depended on which teams would nominate later this month.
The ODCA will explore having just the eight teams in the competition for 2019-2020, but again Frecklington said nothing had been confirmed for the Friday night fixture.
Junior cricket will remain as separate competitions.