While Australia's test side may not have won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this summer, Cowra's cricketers are still in the hunt for the Lachlan Premiership title.
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Restarting the season this Saturday following the Christmas break, Bowling Club's A Grade side will head to Parkes to take on the Reedy Creek Raptors at the formidable Woodward Oval.
Bowling Club captain, Chris Day, said while his side hadn't focused on training over the break, they were ready to play.
"We've just given everyone a pretty clear rest," he said.
"[There was] no real communication around, just let everyone unwind over the Christmas period.
"But we've got to understand it's a pretty important match this week in the context of our season, so I'll be doing my best to get the boys up there and switched on, ready to go for Saturday."
Day said all the sides in the competition were still in the hunt for finals appearances and a good start to the back end of the season was important.
"It's obviously a pretty big match for us," he said.
"I think we're pretty level on wins with them so obviously we're pushing hard to get the win.
"Cats are right out in front, I think Colts are just leading the chasing pack ahead of us, Valleys and Raptors are all very similar.
"Obviously a couple of wins in a row the next two weeks against the teams that are around us are pretty important."
He said the side just needed to settle into a rhythm and wins would come.
"I think it's just about us really batting as a unit," he said.
"We've been a bit disjointed, we've had a couple of blokes get starts and not quite go on with it and then maybe a few blokes take a little longer to get in.
"I think it's just about setting a foundation at the top, Mikey and Mick at the top. Obviously Mikey seems to be batting well, especially at the Colts Carnival.
"Ross Graham is coming back in this week so that will be a handy addition to our batting line up.
"Hopefully we can get the top three or four to set a platform and then have some of our hitters come through the middle overs to make it into a decent score."
Day said the Raptors were always a difficult side to come up against.
"They're a bit of a funny team to get a read on sometimes," he said.
"They can beat the best of the sides and then can lose probably games they should win.
"But I think they are possibly a little bit more consistent this year.
"We'll turn up and see what happens.
"They've usually got a couple of pretty handy bowlers, Scotty Knights is obviously a quality bat and there's a few others who can get away pretty quickly.
"So it's just about us focusing on ourselves and hopefully the rest will work itself out."
Meanwhile Valleys A Grade side will kick off their return to play at home against Colts at Holman Oval.
Valleys co-captain, Ben Houghton, said his side had also enjoyed a rest period over the Christmas break.
"With everyone being away, we wanted to give them a few weeks of and get refreshed," he said.
"So we had a bit of a break and we've had two trainings back now."
With Valleys' first match against Colts being washed out, Houghton said he wasn't sure what they would come up against.
"We haven't played them yet this year so we are looking forward to having a crack especially at home," he said.
"They've got pretty good bowling side, so we'll concentrate on our batting this weekend.
"Trying to bat the whole 40 overs out, which we haven't been so good at this year."
He said he was looking forward to the back end of the competition with all sides still in the hunt.
"Cats are ahead [on the ladder] but everyone else is grouped fairly closely," he said.
"Anyone can still make it from here, we've still got a few games so hopefully we can string together some wins.
"Hopefully we can get a bit of consistency, it's been a washout every second week or so, it's been a bit of an up and down season."
A focus for the Cowra sides this year has been the involvement of younger players in the sides.
Houghton said it had been going well for both themselves and Bowling Club.
"It's good they're starting to step up in their roles a bit more," he said.
"They're still a long way to go but there all coming along well. Getting rep cricket under their belt has helped as well."