RUGBY Union thundered to their second win of the Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade competition as they dismantled an undermanned City Colts side on Saturday at Morse Park 1.

The Bulldogs were coming off an impressive win in the opening game against ORC and continued the upward curve with a first class all-round display.

As had been the case in round one, there were a couple of times with the bat where things could have headed south, but again the middle and lower-order produced when it counted and got their side to 8-216.

With the ball they rolled through Colts with ease and, outside of Simon Little and Matt Stephens, no Colts players made it into double-figures.

They were without Daniel Casey, Callum Hotham, Matt Lawson and Henry Shoemark, though it was worth remembering that Rugby didn’t have Scott Johnston, Mitch Curle or Tom Galvin at their disposal either.

Once more, Jeremy Thackray showed why he is fast becoming arguably his team’s most important player with a blistering cameo at the end of Rugby’s innings and three wickets with the ball.

“I could be a bit loose in saying this, but at the moment he’s in the top one or two all-rounders in the competition,” Rugby captain Andrew Mitton said.

“He came out when the innings was coming to a close and smacked it around, 36 off 17 balls helped us hit 50 off the last five overs or something like that.

“He’s not overly quick with the ball but he’s steady enough and just does enough with it, he’s been outstanding for us for a few seasons now.”

After being sent in to bat by Colts stand-in skipper Jeff Clancy, Rugby were conservative early and got handy contributions from Chris Albon (12) and Dean Watkins (22), but Colts began to work their way into the match.

They had Rugby in some danger at 4-70, but Mike Anderson wrestled the momentum back to his own team with an impressive 50 off 54 deliveries.

His good work was followed up by Sam Macpherson (24 off 20) and completed by Thackray’s whirlwind 36.

Craig Hanrahan (3-45) was the best of the bowlers, while Stephens was economical with 0-18 from eight.

With an asking rate of nearly 5.5 an over Colts needed a fast start but they lost the player most capable of giving it to them in Paul Clancy for just three when he smacked a Jim Tristram full-toss straight to Ben Hurford.

Jaden Ekert (seven), Connor Hotham (five) and Shane Conroy (three) all followed and, when big hitter Craig Berry went without troubling the scorers, Colts were in complete disarray at 5-33.

Little (24) gave a fight, and Stephens clubbed a handful of boundaries and a six in a quick 45, but the chances of a victory at that point were remote and once that pair fell the end was swift.

Thackray finished with 3-17 and Tristram 3-26 while Mitton claimed 2-23 as Colts staggered to 108 all-out.

“Once Paul Clancy got out we felt like Craig Berry was the other guy who could really hurt us if he got in, but he smashed one straight to a fielder and from that stage we were fairly comfortable,” the skipper said.

“We have started well in past seasons but let it slip, I don’t really have any concerns about that though. The one thing that might hurt us is a bye this week which takes away some momentum but, that’s okay.”