But runs from a number of the men in red’s more unherladed batsmen saw them post 177 against South Dubbo and an all-round effort with the ball helped seal a tight, 14-run victory.

“We were fortunate to have the lower order do a bit,” Colts’ Matt Keenan said.

“Especially Nathan Jones and Timmy Howarth, they got a few each and even Benny Semmler at the end getting into double figures.

“For those boys to get us to 170 was massive and we back ourselves to defend anything over 150.”

Souths, without captain Mitch Bower, John Colwell and Greg Rummans, were led by five wickets from the returning Scott Tucker and his dismissal of Greg Buckley (11) with the score at 40 triggered a collapse of 5-8.

And with Wes Giddings, Jason Ryan, Brad Cox, Chris Morton and Marty Jeffrey all out it appeared the Hornets were on track to roll their opposition for less than 100.

But Keenan (10) added 30 with English youngster Jake Caudwell (22) and then Howarth and Jones set about making a respectable total.

Howarth began his knock with back-to-back boundaries but was patient from there as he and Jones went on to add 58 runs for the ninth wicket.

Jones became Tucker’s fourth victim when he fell for 35 but Semmler (15) also made some handy runs with Howarth (39), who was the last man out and the fifth of Tucker’s victim.

Tucker finished with 5/39 from 7.2 overs while Will Lindsay had earlier been a standout with the new ball on his way to finishing with 2/7 from seven overs.

Stand-in captain Adam Wells got Souths off to a strong start in the run chase before falling for (31), shortly after Mark O’Donnell (15) departed, to make it 2-47.

From there no one could go on and make the big score required, and Keenan said his side’s ability toi build pressure was key.

“We bowled pretty well but after drinks we bowled well and tightened things up and the scoreboard pressure got a bit too much for them,” he said, before speaking about his side’s start of two wins and one loss.

“With the side we’ve got we haven’t actually fired yet. The last couple of weeks we’ve batted pretty ordinary so the guys down the bottom who don’t normally get a bat but who can still hold a bat have stood up and that’s been massive.

“It (depth of talent) is a massive bonus for us because we bat low and we’ve got a lot of bowlers. So if we can sort the batting out we should be in for a pretty good season.”

Colts used eight bowlers in Saturday’s win, with Howarth capping off a fine all-round game with 2/2 from five overs while Jeffrey (2/22) and Semmler (2/34) were the other multiple wicket-takers.

The loss marked back-to-back defeats for the Hornets, last season’s runners-up, and next up for them is a match against Newtown but it is expected they will be back to full strength for that clash.