Orme’s powerful innings of 94 not out helped his side claim a five-wicket success over their Bathurst District Cricket Association rivals at Loco Oval.

The first drop batsman fired while the rest of his side struggled to capitalise on their starts, doing enough to chase down the Colts’ total of 204.

Orme’s unbeaten innings consisted of 15 fours and three sixes.

Redbacks captain Matt Willis played down the victory but was thrilled with Orme’s attitude at the crease.

“You take two of the Colts’ best players away – Dan Casey and Matt Stephen – and that leaves a pretty big hole in the team. They’ll be sure to hit back this season,” he said.

“Our bowling and fielding was strong. Our batting wasn’t as great but Ormey played very smart. He can be criticised for playing the odd lose shot but he was blocking everything straight and smashed everything that was wide.

“A bloke with his power means no ground is big enough, and Loco’s already a small ground.”

Colts got off to a strong start with the bat as Henry Shoemark (62) and Pat Hill (30) took the hosts to 91 for the opening wicket.

However, 20 overs into the innings the run rate was sitting at just 4.5 and Colts would need to pick up the pace if they were to put on a competitive score.

Jaden Ekert (42) produced some big shots in the middle order to up the tempo.

Colts batted out their overs with two wickets in hand.

Tim Ryan (2-28), Joey Coughlan (2-32) and Mick Tobin (2-38) were multiple wicket takers for Redbacks.

Dave Rogerson’s haul of 3-38 from eight overs gave Redbacks a scare at 5-144, but John Rudge (22 not out) joined forces with Orme to finish the job.

“We know there’s going to be a couple of games where we’re going to be short on players, so I’m really comfortable with where we’re at right now,” Willis said.

“We’ll be very happy if we can stay inside the top four before Christmas.”