Macquarie Hotel has overtaken Wauchope in the Two Rivers First Grade Cricket competition after a comprehensive win over the Rovers.
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Macquarie handed the Rovers an 80-run defeat on Saturday, February 3, to sit ahead of Wauchope by one point with three rounds to go before finals.
Macquarie captain Josh Hyde said making the top spot wasn't achieved by luck.
"We've been slowly building towards that result after the Christmas break, so it has been part of our plan and it's good to see we have executed it," he said.
"In saying that, we play Wauchope in a fortnight so we don't want to look too far ahead, but that game would pretty much guarantees us to stay first on the ladder."
Hyde said he was happy with the team's effort after getting off to a slow start on the weekend.
"It ended up being a pretty comprehensive win, but it didn't look like that at the start when we lost four key wickets at the top of the batting order," he said.
Hyde said Jesse Schmidt (55) and young gun Brad Jordon (37) stepped up to the task at the stumps to get them back in the game.
"I think they batted exceptionally well in the middle of the game to get us into a position that I thought was comfortable to defend," he said.
"It was probably the most mature I've seen Brad bat since coming into the side, he was pretty faultless on the weekend.
"If he keeps improving the way he has been then I think he will be the future of our club."
Rovers captain Jackson Korn said the loss came down to their batting.
"We haven't been putting the necessary runs on the board to get the wins," he said. "I think we have bowled really well, but the lack of runs is something that's really hurting us at the moment.
"It's something we need to fix going forward."
Macquarie's win comes off the back of Nulla's stunning upset over Wauchope which ended up proving costly to the former ladder-leaders.
While Wauchope won the toss and elected to bat, Nulla was able to reduce them to 105 runs which allowed them to comfortably chase down the target with six wickets to spare.
Elsewhere, Port City Leagues defeated Beechwood by 55 runs to further cement a top-three place.
Hyde said all teams will be keeping on eye on the competition ladder ahead of the finals.
"Wauchope has a big game against Leagues who are trying to chase down second spot against us," he said.
"If Leagues beat Wauchope then they will drop down further and if we beat Beechwood then Leagues will be hunting Wauchope down for the second position.
"So, it's pretty tight at the top of the ladder, and you just want to play faultless cricket to keep a good position ahead of the finals."
