The Bathurst girls side recovered from a slow start to take a 2-0 win in their match before the boys team ended the day on a high with a strong 4-1 success.

It means Bathurst enters day two at Orange with a 231 to 169 lead in the race towards the all-important mark of 401.

Those victories in the soccer helped offset Bathurst's defeats in tennis (58-42) and athletics (66-34) earlier in the day.

Bathurst High School Astley Cup co-cordinator Lachlan Blaikie said it's always

"We had a bit of a slow start but finished well to end up with a 62 point lead. You never know what to expect going into the cup but you never want to be chasing points so it's good to be in this spot," he said.

"It's nice building up a buffer for further down the track."

A couple of great results towards the back end of the athletics program helped to limit the damage for Bathurst.

"The athletics started out looking pretty dire. There were terrible conditions - cold and wet - but we got a couple of good wins in the 400m, which brought us back," Blaikie said.

"We also got first and third in the girls long jump so that helped to shorten up the points differential.

"The 66 to 34 result is something that we can stomach after a couple of wins in the soccer to bring the lead our way."

The girls soccer was still all square at half-time as neither side could find the back of the net, but a strong second half from Bathurst got them home.

That gave Bathurst a narrow two point lead going into the boys soccer.

Bathurst's boys side hit the ground running to jump out to a 2-0 lead at the break and didn't lose their momentum when the game resumed.

"The boys did fantastic to get that result and I think it was probably an even better result than what the coach had hoped for," Blaikie said.

"The girls created so many opportunities and that score could have been much more in our favour. They just didn't capitalise on those chances, but that's the way it can be with soccer. You can dominate a game and not come away with much of a lead."

Friday's sports will be basketball (9.30am), netball (10.45am), rugby league (12.45pm) and hockey (2pm).

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