The final round of the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition is afoot. Finally, we're
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Can anyone find Cavaliers' weakness before finals start?
On Friday night, Cavaliers were pushed right to the limit after Mitch Taylor's four wickets tore into their top order, but Matt Corben and Charlie Greer stacked just enough runs on the board for their bowlers to defend.
Mitch Black and his cohort showed not only do Cavs have one of the best batting line-ups in the business, their efforts with ball in hand show they're not to be trifled with and despite backing up a grand final win they were meticulous, bowling Rugby Union out for just 180.
No-one's been able to figure out what Cavaliers' weakness is, with their only loss coming in round one to St Pat's Old Boys, when Matt Corben didn't get the chance to bat. Will Parsons and co. do damage again should the sides meet in finals?
Running between the wickets is for chumps
We need to talk about this bonkers Centrals v City Colts game. Honestly, just look at this scorecard.
Centrals, who have famously been a side who struggle to put runs on the board without collapsing like a Christmas tree attacked by a cat, were 8-24 before Matt Ripps (27) and Zac Riemer (19) came in.
Normally this is where the phrase "got them out of trouble" would go, but at 9-68 and then 10-68, you're still well beyond trouble into "stuffed" territory, if you want to use less colourful language than most cricketers would.
Despite the early wicket of Wayne Sellers, Centrals didn't trouble City Colts as the side's batters didn't really feel like running and to be honest we can relate. Not in terms of having the skill to not run, but not wanting to.
Harry Shoemark dispatched 16 boundaries and three maximums to make up 82 of his 104 runs without needed to run between the wickets, while Josh Toole (65 from 40) only ran 17 of his final tally, and Wayne Sellers had 40 of his 57 come from seven fours and two sixes.
It's the finals countdown (do-doooo do)
Crack open the cassette tape and plug in that Europe classic, because the countdown is on and it looks like we've got a decent idea of who's going to join Orange City and Cavaliers in the top four.
Rugby Union's all but gone in their quest for the outright over ladder-leaders Cavaliers they need to have any chance of making the top four.
They need to take 19 Cavaliers wickets and then make up any run differences next week, the odds of which are about as long as the Mitchell Highway.
Bulls, meanwhile, will need to overcome a Bailey Brien-inspired St Pat's Old Boys, with the Saints setting Centennials 256 to win and move into the top four. It's certainly not an impossible task on Scots, but is certainly going to be a difficult one.
Meanwhile, Bathurst City is in with a hope of pulling off its outright dream against Kinross, with the students 6-47 in reply to 215, but if both CYMS and Saints win it's a moot point anyway.
Sibling Rivalries 3: Wade Park Drift
Well, after the past two weeks, we're committed to making this a series now. Well, assuming the competition's siblings keep rising to the plate but at this point, it looks like both us and CYMS can rely on the Le Lievre brothers doing so.
What can't the Le Lievres do?
A week after taking nine wickets between them - five to Hugh and four to Angus - the elder Hugh said his side had always dreamt of winning a game with his brother with bat in hand. Fast forward seven days and he makes 95 and Angus 79 with the side's season on the line.
The two put on 154, which is the third-highest partnership of the BOIDC season, and put the side in an extremely strong position against Orange City, reaching 291 at the close of play.
The BOIDC is [redacted]
Suddenly, getting stats off the BOIDC is as hard as getting an FOI request from the government. Well, maybe we're exaggerating a bit here. In fact, we're exaggerating a lot.
The head honchos of the competition are hardly operating a North Korean style state, but there's been a change to the BOIDC MyCricket stats section.
Namely, the removal of the top 20 run-scorers and wicket takers for the season, which they've quietly removed some time over the past 72 hours, as they were last year, but we have the same question again - why?
Is it because the BOIDC wants to keep the mystique around who'll finish with the most runs and wickets?
Most people who are intrigued by that result will know roughly what those players are on anyway, and anyone who's really determined to figure it out can go back through all the scorecards and add them up, so it seems a bit over the top.
And it's not like the organisation's top gong for player of the year is decided purely on those numbers anyway, so for the BOIDC to quietly hide the top 20 spots away seems a bit bizarre.