There's positives and negatives for Bathurst City going into their first match of the new season this Sunday, a Royal Hotel Cup clash against Kinross at Wade Park.

On one hand they will be without their marquee player, Campbelltown first grader Ben Patterson, but on the other they get the chance to field their import player for the first time.

Bathurst City saw great performances from Northern Ireland import Aditya Adey last season and will hope their new pickup Harrison Craig will achieve similar success in the Central West.

Craig, hailing from Peterborough, England, gives Redbacks an all-round spin option.

Redbacks captain Joey Coughlan said scheduling has made things difficult for the opening cup clash but there's plenty of enthusiasm in the camp.

"We're really looking forward to seeing our English import. He's only been over here for just over a week now and it looks like he's going to offer us a fair bit," he said.

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"He's an all-rounder who will bat in our top six and can bowl a lot of overs. I haven't had many spin options but this year I've got two of them, with Matt Willis coming back.

"With scheduling changes and it being race weekend it's been a bit tricky getting a team together for Sunday but we've managed to get 12 blokes available."

Redbacks will be chasing a much-improved Royal Hotel Cup season compared to their 2018-19 campaign which yielded just a single win.

They get a great chance to open their account with a victory against a Kinross side who went through the previous Royal Hotel Cup without a win to their name.

Coughlan said there's an air of excitement around this pre-season thanks to the re-establishment of the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition.

"I can't remember a pre-season where I've been hitting more balls," he said.

"The boys have been really keen for the merger to happen, and we hope it comes with a result for us."

The Redbacks-Kinross clash is the second of the day's double header at Wade Park, getting underway from 2pm.