Rugby's hopes of a late BOIDC finals push are alive

Much like their other two wins this season against Orange City and City Colts, it was another excellent team effort in the field that did the work for Rugby.

Rugby had Redbacks all out for 148 in their pursuit of 194 at Morse Park 1 in the two-day contest.

Flynn Taylor capped off one of the best all-round efforts from any player this BOIDC season by backing up last week's 81 runs with a team-best 4-9 off 8.5 overs.

Jacob Ryan also did plenty of damage to the Redbacks order with his 4-37 off 19 overs while the remaining wickets were taken by Brad Rayner (2-41).

The wicket-taking trio bowled 17 maidens between them.

Rugby skipper Ryan Peacock said it's great to see the younger players in the squad standing tall with the pressure starting to build at this point of the season.

"Defending 200 on a flat wicket was going to be a hard task, especially if we didn't get it right with the new ball," he said.

"The got it right though, which was really good to see, especially from Flynny and Jacob."

Josh Knox (38) and Matt Holmes (21) showed some fight during the seventh wicket partnership in Saturday's game.

Knox's eventual dismissal left his side at 9-132 and with too much still to do.

Despite still sitting second last on the ladder after the win Rugby are just nine points away from fourth-placed St Pat's Old Boys, who they'll play next round.

For Bathurst City the task now looks almost insurmountable.

They'll now need wins over their last three games if they're to be any hope of reaching the top four.

Peacock said his side can make a late season run based on what he's seen from them.

"It's always hard when you don't get that momentum early on in the season," he said.

"They probably haven't had the runs to work with that we would have liked, which is probably the most disappointing thing, which has left our bowlers under pressure to get things right from ball one.

"It's a young bowling attack as well, but they're starting to come good now. It's just a question of whether it's come too late.

"Hopefully these next two games they can make a great account of themselves."

Rugby's season finishes with tough games against St Pat's Old Boys and Orange CYMS before they sit out the last round with a bye.

The other Bathurst team in action on Saturday were the Saints, who already went into Saturday's second day against Cavaliers with first innings points secured.

Pat's weren't able to turn that into an outright success but they gave it a decent shot.

Having removed Cavs for just 87 runs Pat's way to 234 runs, giving them 49 overs to try and bowl the Orange squad out for a second time.

The visitors survived that attempt and ended the day at 3-111 at the Sportsground.

Cavaliers' John Warrington showed discipline with his unbeaten 27 off 153 deliveries.