Five things we learned from the opening day of Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket's 13th round

The 2022-23 campaign continues to produce new and exciting stories with every round.

With just three more Saturdays to play before finals here's what is making news...

HUGH Taylor brought up arguably the most impressive century of the 2022-23 season on Saturday for Rugby Union.

At 15-years-old Taylor is giving up lots of experience to his BOIDC rivals but he's shown that he's got the talent to make his mark at this level.

Just a round earlier he'd hit a match-winning 78 for his side against Bathurst City, but coming so close to triple figures and falling short obviously fuelled his desire to reach that target next time around.

That 78 on its own was a wonderful achievement for Taylor but the fact he's backed that up with a maiden ton against the second-placed ORC is next-level stuff.

Skipper Ryan Peacock scored a ton of his own and put on nearly 200 runs with Taylor in their partnership.

This season has been a special one for the Taylor family who have also witness Flynn take his bowling into the next tier.

Rugby have it all to play for right now and their depth looks as good as its ever been since the BOIDC competition re-formed.

CAVALIERS achieved exactly what they wanted to do on Saturday: Claim first innings points against Centrals and set themselves up for a possible outright win.

It's put a lot of pressure on second-placed ORC who have a monster chase ahead of them against Rugby Union to try and avoid a first innings loss.

Centrals had front row tickets to the Stephen Fairley show as the Cavaliers bowler took 6-23 before Matt Corben (72) and Cameron Laird (57 not out) reached the target quickly.

Cavaliers have been in these finals battles for many years now, and you can always count on their leading players to either get them across the line or keep them in the hunt during tough situations.

With CYMS looking likely to hold onto top spot it would be no surprise to see an all-Orange major semi-final, which in turn will guarantee an Orange club reaches the last day of the season.

WITH his side needing a win to stay alive in the finals race City Colts skipper Russ Gardner scored a vital century to put his team in a strong position against Bathurst City.

Gardner reaching triple figures isn't a shock at this point but it's still impressive for anyone to stay out in the middle for that long when the season is on the line.

The skipper has played third fiddle in the batting stakes this season behind teammates Henry Shoemark and Josh Toole, so Saturday was a reminder that he's always ready to strike when given the opportunity.

Anyone who has been following the BOIDC for the past few seasons wouldn't be remotely surprised by Gardner's performance.

In the 2020-21 season Gardner was - by some distance - the most consistent batter in the competition.

At one stage he had racked up seven successive half centuries and scored an unbeaten 156 inside that stretch.

Colts need not only a victory but an outright victory in one of their final two matches to be a realistic shot of the finals.

HE took his time to get going with his new club but Orange CYMS' Joey Coughlan has been looking a treat with the willow of late.

And it really felt like an inevitability that such a change would happen for the former Bathurst City captain.

As the team's batting order took turns producing great stands out in the middle Coughlan soon brought his batting up to another level.

His 105 against Orange City on Saturday comes after he's hit scores of 38, 64 and 74 since returning from the Christmas break.

The sole missteps came in the match against City Colts (0 and 1) but those have been outliers in an otherwise great run towards the finals.

It's looking like CYMS are destined for the minor premiership at this stage.

There's still work to do but with all the top order firing at the right time of the season they're going to be hard to stop.

BRACE yourselves for a PlayHQ rant.

With the end of the regular season on the horizon there's still no sign of any individual statistics and records coming to the new scoring program that was adopted at the start of the season.

Spare a thought for those counting up individual runs and statistics either week by week or in a bunch at the end of the season as statistical leaders are being worked out.

Cricket is a statistician's game.

Averages, strike rates, milestones and centuries make up the fabric of the sport and have become entwined with it.

The best of the season deserve to be acknowledged, and season-to-season trends are always fascinating to keep track of.

All that is gone at the every level of the game in Australia, underneath the professional tier, and it's nothing short of a disgrace.

It would have been easier to stomach all of this if it was implemented during the season but we're still sitting here waiting for it.

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