Adam Wells described South Dubbo's win over RSL-Colts on Saturday as one of the best he's had with the club.
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The Hornets, last season's wooden-spooners who headed into Saturday without a win in the 2019/20 RSL-Whitney Cup, stunned Colts in the first one-day fixture of the season.
Hornets skipper Wells led from the front, digging his side out of early trouble and making 85 before teenage tearaways Lachlan Rayner and Tyler Martin did the damage with the new ball.
Wells' troops won the match by 14 runs, knocking over Colts for 171 in reply to the 8/185 they made after winning the toss and batting.
The win is just the second the new-look side has had in the RSL-Whitney Cup since the start of last season.
"We're not the strongest team on paper and Colts is still a very, very good side," Wells said.
"We've got a lot of young guys and that was one of the better wins I've been involved with in decades as Souths.
"From where we were at the start of the season, we didn't have huge expectations and the expectations aren't changing but we're just trying to do the little things better."
The South Dubbo side has undergone a huge amount of changes in recent seasons with the likes of Mitch Bower, Matt Finlay, Will Lindsay, Tim Berry, Henry Railz, and Corey McDean no longer part of the team.
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A large number of young players have been forced into the top grade because of that and some of those Wells didn't even know before the season began.
But they're starting to make their impact felt and it was the two young quicks who stepped up on Saturday.
Colts weren't at full strength but did still possess a powerful batting lineup loaded with representative talent and experience.
Rayner and Martin made early inroads though, knocking over Josh Smith (3), Brad Cox (4), Charlie Kempston (0) and Chris Morton (11) as Colts were reduced to 4/27.
Colts' own young gun, Anthony Atlee, led the fightback with a mature 57 but Rayner returned late on to knock over the tail and secure the victory.
"I'd imagine people would think Souths will score runs but not take wickets so to bowl out Colts was unreal," Wells said, before looking forward.
"We've got to have goals. We do take it one game at a time but the goal is to keep winning and learn how to win.
"It's fantastic we won a tight game because before we were in the habit of losing those and we want to get into the habit of winning.
"It [Saturday's win] was just realisation after the work we've put in at training and and the positive chats and group messages we've had. Now they're starting to understand."
While the development of the younger players is a major positive for Souths, Wells and his senior players are still producing key performances.
I was determined to lead by example and that can give them [younger players] confidence.
- Adam Wells on making 85 on Saturday
The skipper came to the crease with his side at 4/35 early on and soon began to dominate the Colts attack.
He was the last man out, having hit five sixes on his way to making a destructive 85 from 75 balls.
Each of his decisions in the field then worked, as another young gun in Lochie Endacott kept things tight after the opening spell while Michael McCarthy jagged a wicket when thrown the ball and Joe Coles snagged 2/32 from seven overs.
"It fell on my shoulders [to score runs] and I was hitting them well for this time of the season and I wanted to show the guys," he said.
"I was determined to lead by example and that can give them [younger players] confidence.
"I'm loving my role. I've learnt a lot from guys like 'JC' [John Colwell], Rodney Morrison, and 'Rummo' [Greg Rummans] and I'm putting that in place now."
Saturday was one of the better days South Dubbo has had in recent times as the second grade side also downed Colts while the club's two third grade sides played out an entertaining game against each other.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Macquarie produced its most complete of the performance to hand CYMS its first loss of the season.
The Blues downed the Cougars by 50 runs at No. 3 Oval, with plenty of contributions from the batsmen backed up by a solid all-round performance with the ball.
The Blues got off to a flying start in the clash, as Medway brothers Dan and Ricky raced to 0/85 after just 10 overs.
Dan fell for 44 but Ricky continued on and top-scored with 81 while Jason Green (50) and Ben Strachan (44) also contributed to the total of 6/252.
Joe Haylock (3/24) and Luke Carman (2/37) then did the damage with the new ball to set-up the win.
Tom Coady played a fine lone hand for the Cougars, making 82 as his side finished at 7/202.
The other match on Saturday saw Newtown score a commanding win over Rugby at No. 1 Oval.
Doug Potter top scored with 68 as Newtown made 7/201 and then Rugby was knocked over for 125 in reply.