The Bushrangers have helped out their cross town rivals by defeating the Belmore Bulls, and also increased their chances of sneaking into a finals place.

Defeating the Scone side by three wickets, largely courtesy of a 90 by Josh Noble and 3 for 33 by Troy Collison, the home side managed to close the gap between them and finals to just two points.

McEwan Dawson's four wicket haul wasn't enough for the Bulls as their rampaging run during the second half of the season came to a screeching halt.

They now sit in fifth position, two points away from Belltrees and will have to navigate an away trip to play Brook Silver and a tough final home match against third placed Murrurundi if they are to win their spot back.

Belltrees did what they needed to against lowly Bunnan, securing a three wicket victory to put them in the box seat for finals.

Hayden Quinlivan continued his impressive season with another 41 runs, and a stunning 5 for 17 with the ball.

He'll need to keep that form up heading into the final rounds as they face off against second place Rouchel, who are coming off a season record win against Brook Silver, and then a final home game against Aberdeen in round eighteen.

Aberdeen are yet another side competing for finals, albeit more of an outside chance having lost to Murrurundi by 24 at the weekend, but they remain only four points off of Belltrees.

Merriwa appear safe at the top of the table now with Rouchel still two games behind, after the ladder leaders secured a solid and somewhat expected eight wicket victory over bottom placed Brook Blue.

Murrurundi and Rouchel still have much to play for, with a much highly second place finish on the line, the latter currently hold the advantage in that contest by just two points.

With so much to play for in the final fortnight of the home and away season, the top seven will all be doing their best to hold their nerve and get the results they need, attempting not to choke like a certain Melbourne based, Eddie McGuire owned side.