Colts are aiming to take their third straight win of the competition after their slow start to the season, while the Bulldogs will be looking to consolidate top spot, with that position up for grabs by Bathurst City and ORC over the coming fortnight.

There’s plenty for both teams to play for in the match, with Colts looking to keep in touch with the leading trio as they sit three points off third place, while Bulldogs are just the one point ahead of Redbacks.

Coincidently, Colts and Rugby Union met in the first match of the two-day series in last year’s BDCA first grade season.

In that match it was Colts who got up on the back of a Henry Shoemark century, scoring 320 runs and seeing off a determined Bulldogs chase to win by 70 runs.

After last week’s last-ball victory over then-leaders ORC, the job doesn’t get any easier for Colts.

It’s going to be a test of endurance with bat and ball, but Colts captain Dan Casey reckons his side can make that result happen again.

“It’s the second week in a row now where we’re taking on the team on top of the table ... but this is definitely a big chance to keep the run going with a good team together and the match being played at our home ground at Loco,” he said.

“I wasn’t there when we played them the first time. We had a lot of guys out in our first game with district commitments, while they were fairly full strength and they beat us convincingly.

“They’ve done really well this season and they’ve got guys in that team with plenty of experience. They have had too much success recently so it’s good to see them doing well, but we won’t be taking it easy on them.”

Improving to a 3-3 win-loss record, Casey believes there’s been a positive shift happening in the team over the last month.

“We’ve had better numbers lately and things are starting to click a bit more. We had that big win against Blayney but we could have easily lost our match against ORC,” he said.

“We weren’t at our best with the ball there so we need to work a bit more on our bowling.”

Last week Bulldogs captain Andrew Mitton mentioned how important it was that his team take at least one win away from their opening pair of two-day fixtures against Colts and Bathurst City.

He believes that if Colts are to be bettered over the coming two weeks, the bowling is going to play the biggest role.

“Colts, when they get their full side on the field, are one of the strongest teams in the competition, no doubt about that,” he said.

“Usually this deck does a little bit but Case [Casey] has told me that it’s flat and playing pretty true. On a small ground like that, that means you’ve got to be bowling quality lines because there’s a lot of runs to take if you don’t.

“A win here would really help consolidate our position before the Christmas break.”