TEAMS can begin planning in earnest for the new Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket season after the draw for the 2021-22 competition was released on Thursday.
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The competition is set to begin a four-week stretch of one-day matches with the opening round on October 30, before a pair of two-day clashes leading into the Christmas break.
Teams will then have an even balance of three one-day games and three two-day games over the back half of the season before semi-finals on March 19 and 20.
"We had a draw prepared for the 14 rounds already, so we needed a little bit of tweaking to make it all mesh properly. It wasn't really as simple as just dropping a couple of rounds off," BOIDC president Mark Frecklington said.
"We just wanted to make sure we were cutting down on teams having to travel away too many weeks in a row, that's all."
Bathurst plays host to three of the five round one fixtures.
Bathurst City and CYMS will look to start improved campaigns when they meet at Morse Park 2, while Centennials Bulls get a tough assignment when they take on defending champions Orange City at George Park 1.
ORC will get thrown straight into the deep end for their return to BOIDC level as they prepare to play grand finalists St Pat's Old Boys in a clash at Morse Park 1.
The Tigers arguably have the most brutal three week stretch to start the competition, facing defending champions Orange City in round two and then Cavaliers in game three.
Rugby Union ventures to Riawena Oval to play Centrals and City Colts will go up against Cavaliers at Wade Park.
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Given the competition now features six Bathurst and four Orange teams (with the loss of Kinross and the addition of ORC) there's set to be plenty of action on Bathurst turf this season.
Only two rounds across the 12-round competition will feature three games at Orange while the rest of the season has a 3-2 field setup favouring Bathurst.
The most significant change will be the finals series running a five team setup.
Frecklington said it's a shift that the committee has been pondering over the off-season for some time.
"We've got one extra team into finals. It's something we talked about over the last few months and we're keen to implement it and see how it goes," he said.
"First will get a bye on the first week. Two plays five and three plays four. The second week will be the team in first, the two winners and the best placed of the losing teams from the first week."
The grand final will be played over April 2 and 3.
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