THE 2020-21 season is only at its halfway mark, but already there have been a host of magic moments for Bathurst cricketers.
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Be it in Bathurst District Cricket Association competitions, Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket matches, representative clashes, Premier Cricket fixtures in Sydney and the ACT and even at Sheffield Shield level, players from our city have starred.
Young guns have fired. Experienced hands have been devastating. They've done it with both bat and ball.
Here are, in no particular order, are the Western Advocate's top 10 moments of Bathurst cricketing brilliance so far this season.
HE bowled 194 consecutive deliveries and took 9-76 - Brad Molekamp's effort with the ball in City Colts' second grade BDCA match against ORC will long be talked about in Bathurst cricketing circles.
It ranked on top of the MyCricket list of best bowling in community cricket across Australia for the weekend and is believed to be best effort with the Kookaburra from any Colts bowler in a single innings.
Molenkamp himself talked down his effort, saying: "It's just one of those days really, just one of those lucky days," but there was certainly more than luck involved.
It's an effort more than worthy of being on our list of cricketing brilliance.
IT has been a host of summers since Blake Dean padded up for Rugby Union, but just as he was once a star of the Bathurst competition he is now having a stand out season in ACT Premier Cricket.
Dean plays for and coaches Western District, his first grade team-mates including fellow Bathurst products Luke Powell and Nic Broes.
His efforts in Western's outright win over North Canberra Gungahlin were undoubtedly M-A-R-V-E-L-L-O-U-S.
On day one he hit 180 as he and Broes combined in a 251-run first wicket partnership. Then on day two Dean claimed 7-53 off 24.4 overs in an effort which ranked as one of the best seen in Australian premier first grade competitions this season.
WHEN Rupert Begg stepped up to play presidents cup for the first time this season he was looking forward to challenging himself in a senior grade.
Well, the 14-year-old has certainly risen to that challenge.
Promoted to opening the batting for St Pat's Old Boys White in their final match before the Christmas-New Year break against Bathurst Bushrangers, the young talent made 168.
There were 28 boundaries and a six in his knock, but perhaps more impressively was the way he played shots to all areas of the ground.
"I knew that there were runs out there for me that day, but I never thought I'd get a score like that, I'd never gotten a score over 70 before, to keep going like that was really special," he said.
Special indeed.
AT the end of last season Dave Henderson was considering calling time on his representative cricket career - Bathurst are certainly glad he didn't.
The City Colts seamer played an integral role in helping Bathurst extend its winning streak over Orange in the Western Zone Premier League competition.
Not only did Henderson take a five-for - he finished with figures of 5-25 from his 10 overs - his effort with the ball included a hat-trick. On top of that, his victims were Orange's five top batsmen.
Orange was all out for just 97 at the Sportsground, Bathurst needing just 27 overs to chase down that target.
"I'd retired at the end of last season and I had some time to think in the off-season and felt that I might still have a little bit to offer. I missed playing with the boys in this Bathurst team, so it feels great to be here again," he said.
THE BORGSTAHL BOYS
THIS season has seen plenty of impressive performances from junior talents and the Borgstahl family is responsible for a few of those.
Cooper Borgstahl bagged two five-wicket hauls in the space of three weeks to start the opens-under 15s season with ORC.
He took 5-11 in the 2020-21 season opener against Saint Stanislaus' College under 15s, then in round three against Stannies Whites opens he took 5-10 off three overs.
In that second performance four of his wickets came in the same over and he twice found himself on a hat-trick.
"His first over he went wicket, wicket, so he was on a hat-trick ball after his first two balls, then he went dot ball, dot, and then wicket, wicket again so he was on another hat-trick in the first ball of his second over," his ORC coach Matt Ryan said.
"So he was on a hat-trick twice in seven balls. He just bowled stump to stump, two of them were bowled and three of them were catches, so he did really well."
While Cooper wasn't able to snare a hat-trick, his older brother Tait did pull off the magic moment in third grade for ORC. It came as he took 4-27 against Rugby Union.
"I've always dreamt of getting a hat-trick," he said.
"Every fast bowler has probably been on one, including me. I've been on one heaps and I've never been able to snag one, so it was a big relief to watch that ball smash the stumps down and get that hat-trick ball."
Tait had another special day with the ball in second grade for ORC on the final day of play in 2020. He took 6-32 off 12.6 overs against St Pat's Old Boys Blue.
It was his best performance with the ball in a senior BDCA competition and the second time he'd taken five or more wickets in one innings.
MITCHELL'S MOMENT
HE'S scored bigger centuries in Bathurst, but Ben Mitchell relished the moment when he finally cracked triple figures in a Sydney competition earlier this season.
Mitchell made 130 for Sydney University in their Poidevin-Gray match against Bankstown and he did it in his typically aggressive fashion too.
He smashed eight fours and five sixes in his milestone innings, the runs coming at a strike rate of 110.2.
"I went pretty hard early, which I normally do, but after a while I pulled myself back a little and I was able to be out there at the end to get the job done, which is pretty cool," Mitchell said.
TRENT Copeland has been one of the NSW Blues' most consistently strong bowlers for years now, but this season he produced one of his best spells in the baggy blue.
The Bathurst seamer took 5-17 off 18 overs against Queensland, 12 of which were maidens.
By lunch-time Copeland had figures off 3-2 from 10 overs and at one stage he bowled 66 consecutive dot balls as his figures stood at 5-6 off 14 overs.
Impressively amongst his victims were four men who had played Test cricket for Australia in Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja and Matthew Renshaw.
"A lot of the time you have a good five, maybe seven-over spell on day when everything goes perfectly and you might take one or two wickets, but that was a rare day where everything went right," he said.
"It was the whole day, it was every spell, every ball."
TWENTY wickets in the space of three days, half of them coming on the same afternoon.
It's fair to say that St Pat's Old Boys White talent Brendan Edwards is the form bowler of the Bathurst District Cricket Association second grade competition at the moment.
Edwards had an afternoon to remember when he finished with match figures of 10-24 off 11.1 overs against Bathurst Bushrangers.
The 25-year-old took 6-13 off seven overs in the first innings then later that same afternoon backed that up with 4-11 off 4.1 overs.
"My first couple of overs went for a few runs, but then I just put it on a good spot and they came undone," Edwards said of that effort.
That was the first time in more than a decade of playing cricket Edwards had managed to take 10 wickets in a match, but he did not have to wait long for it to happen again.
The following round against Rugby Union Edwards finished with match figures of 10-56 off 23.4 overs, five of which were maidens. He took 6-30 on week one then backed that up with 4-26 seven days later.
"I'M 48 at the moment, so I'm truly well and past the best of my career."
Those were the extremely humble words offered by Russell Gardner after he hit an unbeaten 156 runs for City Colts in the BOIDC match against Centrals at Wade Park.
It reminded people of why Gardner - who returned to Bathurst this season after an eight-year absence - was so admired. Not only is he a man who can notch up big scores, but he's not a person who boasts about it either.
The previous round after making 80 against the Bulls, Gardner said "I don't think I'll be bringing back the heydays, I just hope to contribute as I can and when I can."
But as he walked out to the crease against Centrals with Colts not in a great position at 3-48, he did remind people of his heydays and he did contribute. His 156 came off 188 deliveries and included five sixes and 16 boundaries.
MILESTONE MEN
LAST summer saw the return of the BOIDC and while St Pat's Old Boys were the only Bathurst outfit to qualify for the finals, there were still some impressive individual performances.
Seven Bathurst bowlers managed to take five or more wickets in an innings and five players notched up centuries.
It seems as if Bathurst is on track to better that this season and have even more milestone men.
While Gardner's unbeaten 156 against Centrals ranks as the best knock in the BOIDC competition this summer, he's not the only batsman from a Bathurst club to crack triple figures.
Blake Aubin's strong start to the season includes an unbeaten 123 against City Colts - his knock the first century of the summer - while St Pat's Old Boys' Connor Slattery also cracked triple figures.
Skippers have led by example too with Colts captain Dan Casey (103) and Rugby's leader Ryan Peacock (100) amongst the century-makers.
In terms of bowling, Clint Moxon's 7-25 off 13 overs against Kinross certainly rates as a magical moment.
"This year I've got a lot of three-fors but I haven't been able to execute those last couple of wickets to get the five, so it was really good to get the five and then to push even more to get the seven," he said.
Experienced Saint Matt Fearnley was equally impressive when he took 6-9 against Kinross, while Casey (5-21) and Wayne Sellers (5-68) have both snared five-fors for City Colts.
Then on the final day of play in 2020, Jarrod Urza (6-20) helped Bathurst City to an important outright win over Kinross, while Jeremy Thackray (6-61) played an integral in seeing Rugby Union become the first side to beat Cavaliers.
