Five things we learned from round 11 of Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket

Well, well. In the same column earlier this season we speculated if home ground advantage would end up having a big say at some stage in this campaign - and the statistic didn't realise bring up anything definitive - but in this round it showed that it can come into play.

All five home sides came away with the spoils in the latest round of BOIDC - the first time that's happened since the competition was restarted in 2019-20.

There was an away team clean sweep during that first season back, and on two occasions this season we came within one game of seeing more away team sweeps.

Teams will naturally have a decent idea of how a pitch will play the more times they've seen the ground, so it's surprising that it's taken this long to see a home club five-from-five round result.

Looking at both the ladder and the remaining four rounds it looks highly unlikely that we'll see another home club sweep, but stranger things have happened.

It's never fun to put a line through a club's finals hopes, since almost everyone would like to see a competition remain as close and competitive as possible up to the last round, but it's certainly time to do so for Centennials Bulls and CYMS.

Unfortunately the pair now sit 12 points behind their nearest rivals following their defeats on Saturday and it puts the top five well beyond their reach.

There's still pride to play for, and considering Bulls and CYMS both sit on 12 points there will be a hot race between them to try and avoid the wooden spoon.

There's still a long shot chance of the pair relegating Centrals or Bathurst City to the bottom spot but it's going to take a serious turnaround in form and some disastrous results to go the way of those opponents.

Back before the season began if you were told that new team ORC would lose three games in a row at some stage during the 2021-22 campaign you probably wouldn't have been too surprised.

They were a new team, with a host of young players, looking to test themselves at a new level.

But, to their rivals' shock, they turned up raring to go and quickly gained a foothold inside the top five.

Since that sensational start ORC have dropped their past three games - a situation that now feels like a big shock.

Yes, two of those matches came against heavyweights St Pat's Old Boys and Rugby Union, but their latest loss to Centrals left a bit to be desired.

Their next two games? Cavaliers and Orange City. Not exactly fun matchups, based on the ladder.

Wins will be tough to find in both those contests but success in even just one of those matches could put a finals berth back into frame for ORC.

What do the last three wins of the St Pat's Old Boys squad have in common?

They've had a 50-run partnership at the top of the batting order - either the first or second wicket - to set up their victory.

Batting depth has never been a problem at Pat's. It's not as if getting through the top order will instantly solve your problems - they bat deep - but stopping the early flow of runs will go a long way towards other teams finding a way through.

Nic Broes and the Brien brother, Bailey and Cooper, look as strong as they've ever been.

Orange City arguably have one of the best runs towards the finals.

Three of the last four teams they'll face over the last month of the regular season are currently sitting outside of the top five, so the Warriors will be backing themselves to make a potential climb up the ladder.

While the valuable top two finish is drifting out of reach it isn't out of the realm of possibility, and a jump up to third place is especially important since that avoids the week one elimination game. Saints and Rugby need to watch out.

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