AS City Colts prepare for their tilt in the re-formed Bathurst Orange Inter District Council competition they've gained a valuable asset: Josh Toole.
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After a year away from the game Toole has joined forces with the Colts, who are looking to make amends for their hammering in last season's Bathurst District Cricket Association grand final.
Toole, a former Country Championships winner with Western Zone, has been one of the leading cricketers in the region across the last decade and adds to the club's depth with both bat and ball.
Toole made a commitment to play with Colts before his previous club Centennials Bulls had settled on a decision to join the BOIDC competition.
Colts' Dan Casey said it's a great boost for the club to have Toole in the mix.
"I'm good mates with Tooley and I've played a fair bit of cricket and hockey with him. At the time I spoke with him Bulls didn't have a team in the BOIDC and I just asked if he was keen to play this year or not," he said.
"He hasn't been keen on his cricket for the last few years but he seems really keen for this season. He was asking early on when training was starting. It's good for Bathurst cricket to have him playing.
"He's talented, has a great eye and he'll play some good cricket for us, for sure. The more he's enjoying his cricket the better he'll play."
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Toole played just a single first grade game last year for Centennials while making four Bonnor Cup starts.
In his previous full season of cricket in 2017-18 Toole finished with a batting average of 37.2 across all competitions.
Colts won't just be bolstered by Toole this season.
The club have welcomed back Matt Lawson while Dave Sellers is expected to be available for many more matches compared to his limited availability in the previous campaign.
"Lawso's already been to a couple of training sessions. He's turned up with a new bat and he's keen too," Casey said.
"Both Dave and Wayne [Sellers] are really looking forward to playing as well. It's looking like one of those seasons where you've really got to be turning up to training and playing well to make the first grade team.
"The last few years we've only had eight or nine guys in the first grade squad so we'd always have second grade guys filling in but they're not getting much of a go when they're up there.
"Now there's more like 13 to 15 players in the first grade squad so it's going to become really hard to pick a team each week."
Toole will face his former team in round one.