Captain Gordon Scott elected to bowl first on a slow Oxley Oval pitch after he discovered how tough batting first was 24-hours earlier with Port City Leagues Magpies.

He struggled through a 16-ball duck on Saturday and then had no hesitation in sending the Novocastrians in when the coin fell his way.

"It wasn't an easy deck to bat on; there were no gremlins, but it was hard to play across the line," Scott said.

Merewether struggled through 38 overs of their innings before they were eventually all out for 96 with Glenn Rowe the star with the ball.

The Marlins opening bowler took 3-14 off six overs.

"Everyone was on the money with the ball; it was really difficult to bat on," Scott said.

"It was a good team effort."

In reply, North Coast registered 5-100 in the 34^th over with Warren Preston (19 not out) and Glenn O'Brien (22) chipping in with worthwhile contributions.

"It was pretty much evenly spread with the bat, no one scored a lot of runs; it was all between 10 and 20," Scott said.

The win keeps the Marlins hot on the heels of Central Coast Lightning who currently sit in first position.

"We're still right in contention to win it," the captain said.

"We have a few games in hand and are only three points behind the leaders, but they have played all their games."

The Marlins will host the Mudskippers in a local derby at Oxley Oval this Friday evening after their fixture last Friday was washed out.

They then face New England on Sunday.

"If we win both of those two games we're a good chance of winning the whole thing," Scott said.

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