THEY almost didn't enter a team for the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition but now Centennials Bulls are close to securing a place in the finals.
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And boy do they have two exciting all-Bathurst clashes to try and make it happen.
Over the next two weeks they face Rugby Union at the Sportsground before they face fellow top four rival St Pat's Old Boys in a match which has winner-takes-all written all over it.
Victory over Rugby would help alleviate a pinch of that pressure before the final round but Bulls have to expect a fired blue and gold opponents who are still clinging on to their faint finals hopes.
Another strong all-round bowling performance from Centennials paved the way for a crucial victory last round against CYMS, before Tyler Horton's 91 got the Bulls home.
Bulls captain Kurt Toole said those team performances have been a recurring feature of the team's brilliant season, and should more of them come over the final two rounds then finals will await.
"We're buzzing at the moment. We went into the season with no expectations and everyone wrote us off. We go into every game with no pressure, and that's what's helped," he said.
"Last week was a great performance as we look towards finals. We haven't relied on one or two players. If we were to think back on games throughout the season I could think of a different player each game who stood up.
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"Even the two games we lost we went down to Bathurst City by a bit over 30 runs and Orange City may have passed our score only two down but we'd posted 280 which we thought was very competitive."
Rugby may end up needing a couple of outright victories to snag an unlikely finals place, but that's enough of a chance for Toole and his men to sit up and be alert.
"We don't want to leave it to the last game and we're targeting this game pretty hard. It's a game that we've spoken about a lot," he said.
"We don't underestimate any team. People underestimated us and we've knocked off most teams. This a great comp and anyone can beat anyone on their day."
In other matches at Bathurst this week City Colts can play the spoiler with a game against finals hopefuls CYMS at Loco Oval and it's the all-City affair at Morse Park 1 as Bathurst City plays host to Orange City.
Cavaliers will be massive favourites for their meeting against hosts Kinross while Centrals will chase the upset against St Pat's at Wade Park.
Cavaliers and Orange City share the lead on 31 points, with Bulls on 25 and St Pat's on 21. CYMS aren't far off the pace with 19 and Bathurst City are next on 15.