ENGLISHMAN Greg Buckley returns to the RSL-Colts line-up for the first time in more than 18 months today as the men in red look to bounce back from two consecutive losses.
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Buckley starred for Colts in their run to the 2012-13 Whitney Cup title but missed last season when he returned home to England.
The representative all-rounder arrived at Dubbo yesterday afternoon and is straight into the line-up for today, much to the delight of his teammates.
"Even though he wasn't here last season he always kept in touch and was always looking to come back eventually," Colts' Jason Ryan said.
"It's happened a bit quicker than we thought but it's a big boost for us."
Colts take on Macquarie today at Lady Cutler 1 in the first round of one-day matches for the season and Ryan admits his side are seeking a return to winning ways.
Captain Chris Morton and his men opened their season with an impressive win over CYMS but followed that with losses to Newtown and Rugby and Ryan was hopeful Buckley's return would coincide with more consistent performances from his side.
"I don't think we've been too bad, we beat CYMS and then in the next two we had to chase big scores and we went close so our batting hasn't been bad but our bowling and fielding has been a bit inconsistent," Ryan said.
"We've probably been chasing 50 or 60 runs more than we should have so we need to bowl a bit tighter and hold onto our catches and Greg will definitely help that."
With Morton yet to win a toss this season Ryan said his side were hopeful of rectifying that and batting first today.
"Hopefully we can win a toss and have a bat and set it up nicely with a big score," he said.
"They (Macquarie) have got a lot of inexperience after losing a few guys but they've got their big guys in 'KB' (Keiran Brien) and 'Greeny' (Jason Green) and if those two get in they'll get hundreds so we can't take them lightly."
While Brien and Green are the keys for Macquarie, the Blues also had contributions from the likes of Ed Haylock, Ben Page and Joe Haylock last round as they recorded their first win of the season.
Today's match begins at 1pm.