He quite literally had venom in his blood as prior to belting a decisive 86 in his side's Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket season opening one-wicket win against Cavaliers, Ryan was stung on the hand by a bee.

It was far from ideal as he arrived at the crease with the Saints at 4-69 in pursuit of the 201 runs Cavaliers had scored a week prior in the opening half of the two-day match.

"Before the game was just about to start I got stung on the hand by a bee, so I had to get an anti-histamine into me and some ice on the hand. But it wasn't long before I was in," Ryan said.

"It was the weirdest thing ever, I thought it was a fly or a bug on me and I went to just flick it away and I copped the old stinger.

"Everyone was saying like 'That could only happen to you Ryano'. It was just one of those weird, comical things."

Despite his right hand being impacted, Ryan got off the mark with a six after joining Bailey Brien at the crease.

That pair ticked things along steadily, scoring at a run rate of 2.84 in their 19 overs together. But after Brien was trapped leg before wicket for 49 and with not a lot of experienced batsmen to come, Ryan upped the anti.

"I was very patient to begin with batting with Bails, just ticking over the score and it was only when a couple of the guys came in later I knew I had to start whacking them," he said.

"I knew the guys to come in didn't have a lot of experience, so I just wanted to score them as quickly as we could."

The skipper certainly had luck along the way - being dropped three times - but he punished Cavaliers for their fielding errors. He notched up his 50 with a six and before he was eventually dismissed by spinner Mitch Black, had belted six fours as well.

But by then Ryan and Ethan Ivory (two not out) had gotten the Saints home as they held their nerve in their final wicket stand. The hosts finished on 203.

It was Ryan's best knock playing for the Saints since hitting 96 in the 2017-2018 Bathurst District Cricket Association preliminary final.

That they won - especially given the Saints lost three consecutive two-dayers to start their campaign last season - meant he was able to joke about playing better after being stung.

"Maybe it shows I don't use the bottom hand so much and play a bit more technical maybe," he laughed.

"By the end it wasn't too bad, I think having those allergy tablets helped.

"I got probably dropped three times, one went for a six as they dropped it after they attempted a catch, there was one at short cover that went through the hands too - I was just lucky that I was hitting them pretty hard and they went through.

"I went with the wind for a few of the shots, but the problem was that was a lot longer boundary given where the pitch was located. I was just trying to pick my balls, whenever one was in my slot that I wanted to whack, I just tried to hit it over the top of the fielders."

Ryan was one of three batsmen who fell to Black, who finished with 3-69 off his 22.5 overs.

His fellow spinner Angus Cumming was the pick of the Cavaliers bowlers as he took 5-47 off 17 - his second five wicket haul in a senior top grade club match.

Eight of his overs were maidens and he remarkably bowled 85 dot balls.

"They seemed to bowl a lot of their spinners, so there wasn't a lot of pace coming onto the bat," Ryan said.

"Three of his [Cumming's] wickets came off dot balls, they weren't particularly good shots ... but yeah in that wind he did flight them well."