Before Saturday's loss in abhorrent conditions, the Lions hadn't tasted defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs - one of the competition's toughest outfits - for a remarkable five years and nine months, or bang on 2100 days on Saturday.

The fact that loss half a decade ago was in conditions equally as abysmal is a little uncanny.

On September 4, 2010, Ray Lange kicked a late penalty goal to gift the Bathurst club a 14-12 preliminary final victory in the slop at Ashwood Park while at Pride Park on Saturday the visitors did it a little easier, running in two tries to the Lions' one to break their drought in style.

Orange City assistant coach Josh Maley says the Lions were completely outplayed by the veteran Bulldogs pack.

"We were taught a lesson on how to play in those conditions ... we were never in it," Maley said.

"Their experienced pack, guys like (Chris) Plunkett, (Adam) Dwyer, Isaac Breen, they've been around for a long time and played to the conditions a lot better than we did.

"We made dumb errors as well. You can't try and run the ball out of your own end when it's like that ... that sort of expansive footy is great in the dry but you've got to be prepared to be up for the challenge when it's not, and we just weren't."

A dour affair, the Dogs posted the only points of the first half through halfback Kurt Weekes, his right boot potting two handy penalty kicks to nudge the visitors out to a 6-0 lead.

That advantage was then extended in the second half when pressure eventually resulted in points.

Bathurst laid on two tries, the first to Bart Bogart and the second to winger Josh Lee - Weekes landed one of the conversion attempts - to hand the Bulldogs an almost unassailable 18-0 lead.

The Lions scored late through Duncan Young, but it was only ever going to an a consolation effort as Bathurst snapped their biggest Blowes Clothing Cup hoodoo in dogged fashion.

BATHURST BULLDOGS 18 (Bart Bogart, Josh Lee tries; Kurt Weekes conv, 2 pen goals) def ORANGE CITY LIONS 7 (Duncan Young try, conv)