IF you ask St Pat's Old Boys skipper Adam Ryan, the return of Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket last season was a thing of beauty as he and his squad got to test themselves against familiar foes and new rivals.
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It was a challenge they embraced as the Saints were the only Bathurst outfit to make the finals and a challenge Ryan is once again looking forward to this summer.
"It was really nice last year, I know we were up the top end of it, but it was just beautiful that in every game, even against Kinross and Centrals, it was a dog fight," he said.
"It's really beautiful to play a competitive style of cricket where if you don't turn up, you know you'll get beat. That's what you want to have in first grade, you want to be playing your best cricket week-in, week-out and be challenged."
It's really beautiful to play a competitive style of cricket where if you don't turn up, you know you'll get beat.
- Adam Ryan
The addition of one-day games to the draw is something Ryan thinks could "bring the Bathurst sides into it more with a bit more explosive hitting styles", but in the main he is looking forward to be challenged by each of the Saints' nine rivals.
THE 2020-21 SQUAD
EMERGING talents and proven performers - Ryan can't wait to see how that combination will work for his side in the 2020-21 Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition.
While term four school cricket has been impacted by COVID-19, it means the Saints will have a greater pool of talent to draw on for at least the opening rounds of the new season.
"I think the lack of school cricket due to COVID plays into our hands as we'll get Cooper Brien playing more. We'll hopefully get the next crop of Parsons coming through, Hugh and Angus have been training really well and it will be good to see what they can do, and we'll also have Benny Cant," he said.
"We've also got another young fella, Hamish Siegert, he has come across and has been training well too.
"There is that possibility depending on what happens with COVID that a bit of school cricket will be back on later in the season, but if we can get them playing hopefully those younger guys will be qualified."
While the Saints will feel the absence of Ben Parsons given his skill with both bat and ball, and have also lost Dave Cant, Ryan feels Jack Goodsell can help fill some of that void.
Goodsell ranked third in the Independent Sporting Association division one cricket competition last season, taking 18 wickets for Stannies at an average of 15.28. He also made 315 runs at an average of 31.
SEASON GOAL
WHILE the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately cost the Saints a shot at last season's premiership, it was still a big summer for Ryan's men.
They lost just one game on their way to qualifying for the preliminary final, at which point the BOIDC was forced to end prematurely due to the pandemic.
Although he knows the addition of one-day rounds could see the emergence of new contenders, Ryan hopes the Saints can again challenge for the title.
"Now there's one-dayers you've got to plan your attacks a little bit different, but we're fortunate that we've kept a similar side together," he said.
"We want to be thereabouts again, that's the goal, the way we play the game, but at the same time we want to develop everyone within the team's game as well and get them playing the best possible cricket we can."
THE FAVOURITES AND THE DARK HORSE
WHILE Ryan feels Bathurst sides could have a stronger presence in the finals this season, he thinks favouritism rests with a pair of Orange outfits.
After finishing first and second last year Ryan is tipping Orange City and Cavaliers to again be hard to beat, while he thinks minor semi-finalists Orange CYMS can threaten as well.
"You just don't know who has recruited who this year, who they've got and how they've been training, so it is a bit of a mystery when you go into that first round," he said.
"I think City and Cavs will be pretty unchanged and they'll be pretty strong as always and the other side from last year which were a bit of a dark horse and I think they'll build on that this season is CYMS.
"CYMS played some good cricket and weren't given the credit for it."
