After nabbing 4-23 in the first innings, Scoble made an unbeaten 69 before claiming four wickets in the second innings to have City scrambling.

They managed to stave off the outright though, batting through to 6-143 at the end of play.

North Tamworth weren’t able to do the same next door at Dick Edwards Oval with South Tamworth routing them twice to romp to a 104-run outright win.

Souths struck early with Angus McNeill (3-7) having Glen Lewington caught for a duck. From there he combined with Tom O’Neill (3-26), Ryan Meppem (2-21) and Troy Osborne (2-22) to roll Norths for 79.

Souths skipper Tom Groth had little hesitation in sending Norths straight back out to bat, and his decision paid off with Norths mustering just 110.

The win moves Souths up to second behind Old Boys, whose 367 proved too much for Bective East.

The Bulls though had a good crack at it and ended up with 232. They only had 10 to bat after Harrison Kelly parted ways with the club during the week.

Jye Paterson top-scored with 53 followed closely by skipper Adam Jones (48).

Wests in contrast needed just 13 runs for first innings points when they resumed on Saturday, and pushed on to 7-231 before skipper Tim Kensell called his batsmen in.

Scoble then traded weapons to the ball and like he did in the first innings tore through the City top order. They were 3-63 at drinks with Scoble snagging all three wickets.

Skipper Brad Smith had to then held the innings together, but fell not long after the resumption for a top-scoring 60, leaving it again to Lachlan Cooke and Liam Rogers to dig them out of trouble.

“They put on 60 for that sixth wicket and batted really well,” Smith said.

“Full credit to Lachie. He batted really well both digs and the same with Liam. He batted above his age.”

He finished unbeaten on 38 to follow his 27 in the first innings, while Cooke made 31 to back up his 40 in the first.

Smith was happy with the way his side fought both with the bat and earlier with the ball. They bowled well with not much to work with.

Daniel Rae and Dan Lawrence led the charge with three wickets apiece.

Scoble was out there for the better part of Wests innings on Saturday and batted brilliantly, opener Dave Mudaliar said. It was a timely knock as he prepares to pad up for ACT/NSW Country at the nationals, which start in Adelaide on December 5.

Mudaliar (37) had with Sage Cook (34) done a lot of the leg-work the previous week, and said it was a good effort from his side.

“We fought hard all day,” he said.

“There were a couple of sessions there I thought there could have been a little bit more fight for that outright but I don’t think we did a lot wrong.”

Kensell declared 124 in front and with about 49 overs to bowl City out.