Following a meeting on Tuesday morning between Bathurst High School, Orange High School and Dubbo College,it was announced that the 98th edition of the cup would not be going ahead due to COVID-safe guideline changes announced the previous day by the NSW Department of Education.

Bathurst High were preparing to shoot for a fourth straight title in the long-running sporting event but with the guidelines stating that "schools must not travel outside their local community or zone" there was no chance for the competition to go ahead.

The cup had already been pushed back from its original term two date and was due to start on Thursday next week with the Orange versus Dubbo tie.

"Whilst we understand that this will be a distressing time for many of our students, we acknowledge that our paramount concern is for the safety of students and staff within our communities," a joint statement from the three school principals read.

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The announcement came at an unfortunate time for Bathurst High School as they had just finalised their team selections for their title defence in the days before the guideline changes.

"The reality is that a worldwide pandemic has cancelled a multitude of incredible events throughout 2020. Our kids would love an Astley Cup but we want for them is a culmination of 13 years of schooling and a HSC result that means something," Bathurst High School principal Ken Barwick said.

"The great depression, the Second World War and now COVID-19 have stopped the Astley Cup. It takes a major world event for us to cancel something like this, because that's what it means for all of the towns involved."

The cup has only been cancelled on three previous occasions: in 1924 (as it couldn't be organised), 1931, (the Great Depression) and 1940 (World War 2).