The Warriors, who have won just one round this season, were edged out by hosts Bateau Bay 62.5-51.5 in a match which went down to the wire.

Bateau Bay set up their win the singles where they took the points 25.5-12.5.

Orange hit back in the doubles winning 23-15 to trail overall by just five points.

The Thunder were able to claim the teams 18-16 and then the bonus four points for the highest overall pinfall to win the round.

Brown wasn’t disappointed with this team’s loss away from home.

“I think there’s some good signs. It shows they’re a lot closer than they have been,” Brown said.

A highlight for the Warriors was a stunning performance from Jason Osborne, which included a 300 game and pushed him to a 241 average for 11 games. 

“He was a man on fire. It was definitely up there with one of the top averages in State League,” Brown said.

“He had an 819 series for three games and a 1064 series for four games.”

Ron Forbes (208) and Mark Holle (204) were the others to average over 200 for the round.

“Ron and Mark bowled quite well. Ron is usually pretty consistent. He usually averages around the 200-mark,” Brown said.

“I can see Mark bounced back after a tough one in the previous round.”

Brown said there were things the Warriors could work on.

“The biggest problem with our guys is when they’re not on song, they bowl 150, 160 games, whereas others, when they bowl a bad game, it’s 180 and 190. I think it comes down to single pin misses or taking too long to adjust to the conditions,” he explained.

Still, Brown could see the bright side of Sunday’s performance.

“At least it’s on the way up,” he said.

The Warriors will be tested in the next round when they take on Shellharbour who are second on the ladder.

The date for their match is still to be confirmed.