Mark Frecklington weighs in on current state of the 2022-23 Bonnor Cup

The umpiring situation wasn't the only issue for Morrish, with the scheduling around the competition another thorn in the Western Zone spearhead's side.

Originally the Bonnor Cup - run by the Orange District Cricket Association - was meant to be played between eight teams.

Six of those teams - St Pat's Old Boys, Rugby Union, Orange City, CYMS, Cavaliers and Centrals - were automatically chosen while Bathurst City Colts, Bathurst City Redbacks and ORC were meant to play-off in qualifiers for the final two spots.

Having previously competed in the cup, Lithgow Lightning and Centennial Bulls were ruled out of the tournament this year.

Wash-outs meant the play-offs didn't go ahead, with the ODCA then deciding to revert the cup back to a 10-team competition that included Lithgow Lightning, City Colts, Redbacks and ORC.

Lithgow has forfeited its two opening games of the competition.

When contacted about the Orange City vs Bathurst City game, ODCA president Mark Frecklington confirmed Lithgow has since 'pulled out' of the competition.

"They couldn't get a team on Friday nights, they said they couldn't see how that was going to change so they've pulled out," he said.

Speaking after his side's win over Redbacks on Sunday, Morrish was highly critical of the competition as a whole.

"It's a farce. The whole competition has been a farce from the start this year," he said.

"The three teams were supposed to play off to begin with then because they couldn't make a call they added them all in and then added Lithgow and then Lithgow forfeit both games, what kind of organising is that?

"Not to mention playing cricket on Sundays and Wednesday nights."

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Frecklington confirmed Wednesday night games were always part of the schedule but Sundays had come in due to washouts.

Morrish said City were also informed during the week its game was likely to have no umpire at Riawena Oval. Instead Bathurst City official Chris Warry filled the role on Sunday - who is an accredited umpire.

The games at Wade Park between Orange CYMS and ORC as well as Centrals versus Bathurst City Colts had two umpires being David and Nicholas Warburton.

This was a particular sticking point for Morrish.

"When you plan the competition you should've pre-planned to have an umpire for our game on Sunday - yet the other game on Sunday has two umpires," he said.

"It's a joke really, it's a proper joke, especially when you pay umpire fees."

Morrish was also disappointed to have his marquee players Zac Starr and Lachlan Strachan travel from Grenfell and Dubbo respectively to play in a competition that didn't have a professionally badged umpire, referring to it as "village cricket".

When asked about the umpiring situation, Frecklington said there simply wasn't enough.

"There just weren't any umpires available, there's nothing we can do about that. There's other stuff on and not all umpires are available on Sundays," he said.

The president also said that since the Warburton father-son duo have an affiliation with Orange City, the umpires association didn't want them to officiate at Riawena Oval. Frecklington added that Nicholas Warburton is also an umpire that doesn't have a lot of senior cricket experience.

"If we had two senior umpires we would've made sure one went to Riawena in the morning and joined together at Wade Park in the afternoon," he said.

The president added the NSW Youth Championships held in Bathurst struggled to fill enough spots for umpires.

For Morrish, he believes the solution to the competition's problems comes down to forward thinking.

"Just pre-plan, once they knew they weren't doing those three play-offs, they should've made a call on the one team they [didn't] want in the comp," he said.

"I know it's hard on the other teams, and it's tough but they committed to an eight-team comp at the start of the year and then just because those three teams didn't get to play [they brought it back].

"They should've made a call on eight teams and be done with it instead of bringing a team [Lithgow] back in that they left out because they've forfeited games in the past. They've come back in and forfeited both games straight off the bat. It's just a joke."

Frecklington said wash-outs meant the original plan for the competition had to be altered.

"The rain meant we couldn't do what we wanted to do with the qualification bit," he said.

"We just thought it'd be easier to go back to nine teams then Lithgow put their hand up which hasn't ended too well.

"We didn't want to risk not getting the qualification matches played and not knowing where we'd be moving forward ... to get through that we just wanted to take the qualification matches out of it and get everyone in there."

When asked if going back to eight-teams was an option, the president didn't want to remove any side.

"We'd have to kick someone out, that's the difficult thing," he said.

"We don't want to kick anyone out and eight teams was just about trying to fit it in comfortably on Friday nights.

"If more first grade teams want to play then we have to look at what we do next season. It has been an issue trying to fit it all in, as we've seen it's a bit of an issue trying to fit it in with umpires ... it's a difficult time of the year to get everyone available."

Bathurst City Colts captain Dave Henderson has also been critical of the Bonnor Cup system this season.

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