First grade exodus forces ORC to pull pin on their BOIDC campaign

With a large number of players either leaving Bathurst or stepping away from the game to spend more time with their families the club were left with no choice but to step back for 2023-24, leaving the BOIDC to run as an eight-team competition.

During ORC's 2020-21 Bathurst District Cricket Association second grade finals campaign the team announced their intentions to make a return to the region's top flight competition for the following year.

The Tigers' pair of BOIDC campaigns were fuelled by an exciting core of junior talents who on each occasion got the club within a whisker of playing finals cricket.

But now much of that group are unable to stay together for one more campaign, and ORC couldn't bring in new recruits or bring enough people up from second grade to fill the void.

Hugh Parsons, Ben Cant, Hamish Siegert, Alex Kinghorne and Ricky Webb are among those who weren't available for another season with the team.

Then both Dave and Wayne Sellers couldn't fully commit to another season of first grade cricket.

Dave Sellers said it was tough to see the club forced to make the move.

"It's definitely disappointing. We had a good bunch of kids all around the same age who were coming through, we won the second grade comp and then gained a few extras like Ben Cant, Hugh Parsons and Hamish Siegert," he said.

"It's just that a lot of them have gone on to bigger and better things. A lot of them are away at uni now - there would be around five of them who have moved for that reason."

Sellers said the club left things as late as they could to see if they could get their numbers up to scratch.

"When we looked at the numbers there were probably six or seven who could definitely play, and I think that we may have been able to get to 11, but if we had people unavailable then we'd have to start forfeiting matches," he said.

"Wayne just had a baby so he's not going to play. I've played footy all year but I'll play a couple of games of second grade to help out if we're short.

"I would have played for sure if we had a first grade team but it'll be good to give some time back to the kids."

It remains to be seen if any players going around again this season will switch clubs to continue playing in the BOIDC.

"Jacob [Ryan] and Tait [Borgstahl] were playing rep cricket so it's likely that they'll look for other clubs, but I'm not too sure," Sellers said.

"I would encourage them all to play the best level of cricket that they can. It's possible that Tait and Justin [Stephenson] might play second grade but I can't be sure what they'll be doing.

"I know a couple are having chats with a few other clubs."