The game was moved from the turf to the synthetic pitch at Pioneer Oval, West Dubbo and the batting dominated.

Newtown finished their 40 overs at 9-204 but the Blues reached their target with two overs remaining.

In the run chase, the Blues lost two early wickets before Marchant and Koerstz took charge.

Marchant, who top scored with 64, was fairly adventurous in the early stages hitting four sixes and two fours in his first 42 runs but finished with 12 fours before he was out.

Koerstz picked the right balls to hit for his 44 and they combined to take the score from 2-58 to 3-136 before the rest of the batsmen got them over the line. Brad Westcott’s 28 not out was also important.

Earlier in the afternoon the reliable Graham Baker got Newtown off to a good start with 76 but only Brett Wrigley (38) and Shaun Fitzpatrick (24) made any other worthwhile contributions.

As would be expected on a flat strip, the bowlers in both sides struggled to get wickets.

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THREE wickets from Al Horrocks and Jason Coyle gave Rugby seconds the edge over Souths at South Dubbo Oval.

Horrocks took 3-17 from six overs and Coyle 3-10 from 6.5 overs as Souths had to be satisfied with just 62 runs from 28.5 overs. Only two batsmen, Shane Edgar (12) and Nathan Astri (11), got into double figures.

Rugby knocked off the winning runs in 18.1 overs and were 2-63 at the finish.

Andrew Rose top scored with 26.

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IT APPEARS that a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ provided players with a 25x25 game between Colts and CYMS at Lady Cutler South.

The result was fairly clear cut after Colts finished with 5-207 and CYMS 2-82.

Matt Keenan was a tower of strength for Colts with 86 with Nathan Jones (35) and Nathan Finlay (26) getting amongst the runs.

There was little aggression from CYMS batting although Scott Russell (25) and Warren Dodd Jnr (25no) got starts.