After dominating the Dubbo cricket scene for more than a decade many thought the rise of Souths and Macquarie, and the continual improvement of Newtown and CYMS, signalled a changing of the guard.

But five rounds into the 2016/17 season, Colts have set up a commanding lead atop the Whitney Cup ladder using a tried and tested method of cricket.

That continued on Saturday when they ground Newtown down in tricky conditions at No.3 Oval, eventually winning by 87 runs.

Batting first, Colts made 7/173 from their 40 overs, thanks mainly to a 71-run fifth-wicket stand between Chris Morton (55) and Brad Cox (28).

As usual, the off-spin of Steve Skinner was hard to contain and the Newtown all-rounder had his team’s best bowling figures with 3/19 from his seven overs.

In reply, Newtown’s innings never really got going as a constant stream of wickets had them under pressure.

The new-ball pairing of Ben Semmler and Jake Caudwell bowled tight, with Caudwell cashing in to take five wickets.

Batting at eight, Dan French was the only Tiger to make double figures as he finished unbeaten with 26 of his side’s total of 86.

“We set our goal to bat out our 40 overs and make 150 plus, and then put the pressure on them with the ball. It's worked for us in the past and it worked again on Saturday,” RSL-Colts skipper Jason Ryan said.

“It was an important toss for us to win, in order to go out there and get runs on the board because the wicket wasn’t easy to bat on.

“We were 4/57 there at one stage early and on target for about 140, so to end up with 173 I thought gave us a really defendable target.

“The win helps too because other results went our way and we’ve built a nice lead, which we’d like to take into Christmas.”

While the batting set up the win, Ryan was also full of praise for the work done by Caudwell with the ball.

The English seamer is getting better week by week as he adapts to the Australian conditions.

“He usually bowls first change but with Tom Atlee out he’s taken the new ball the past couple of weeks and done well,” Ryan said.

“With Benny Semmler bowling tight at the other end they didn’t give Newtown much to hit, and they had the added bonus of shaping the ball across their left-handers like Mat and Steve Skinner.

“It’s great for us to have two bowlers like that because most of the top bats in Dubbo right now are lefties, like the Skinners, Jordan Moran and Jason Green.”

Colts next match will be a one-day fixture against CYMS, while Newtown will be out to bounce back when they take on a resurgent Rugby.