Renowned slow starters to the season, the Thunder find themselves in the unusual position after three rounds of sitting on top of the Maitland first grade cricket ladder with Northern Suburbs after a comprehensive 52-run win over Wests at Coronation Oval.

Norths got home by 21 runs over City United but not without some controversy with Anru Kriel given out for obstructing the fielder after the umpired ruled calls by the batsman with the ball in the air had interfered with the fielders attempt to take a catch.

"(City United skipper) Matt (Trappel) and I spoke about it after the match and agreed to disagree but at the time it did feel like the batsman's action did put the fielder off," Norths skipper Lincoln Mills said.

"It's just one of those things in the rules say that you cannot do that, crying out while the ball is in the air.

"Whether or not it's a deliberate attempt to put the fielder off I don't know, but it just went on too long and the umpire agreed."

Mills said the victory spearheaded by the bowlers was one of their best wins in recent seasons.

"It was probably one of the best wins we've had in recent seasons. We bowled really well, we didn't bowl many bad balls to be honest.

"It was a tough game to gauge where you were at. We were pretty disappointed after our batting only getting 150, when we were probably set up to get 200 plus after the first session.

"As it turned out the wicket got harder to bat on during the day. We stuck to our plans and bowled at the stumps and it worked out well.

"Brad Jenkinson has really brought a killer instinct to the team, the competitive nature he has and it's been a breath of fresh air around the place. Everyone else at the club is just feeding off that.

"Callum Gabriel is going from strength to strength, he bowled exceptionally well yesterday."

Gabriel picked up 3-25 and Jenkinson 3-20 from their 10 over spells.

Tim Burton had an exceptional day for City taking 5-37.

Thornton skipper Matt Gabriel said his side had produced an excellent all round performance and shocked themselves a bit to be sitting on top of the table after three rounds.

"It's not normal for Thornton, we normally wait until after T20 or after Christmas to kick into gear. I think this year we've had a lot better pre-season.

"We've had a lot better numbers at training an it is just showing with the results we've had.

"I think a score of 191 with how the outfield was playing was probably worth 250. Our bowlers then backed up with some excellent bowling."

"A couple of our middle pacers and Dan (Willis) our spinner in those middle overs really tightened things up.

"Wests scored something like 22 runs in that middle session and lost four wickets. It's just a credit to the boys bowling so well, sticking to an area where you can't do much with it as a batsman.

"We were luck to get Aaron Mahony out for a duck. That's obviously makes a big difference, but we were able to go into that second session and take control.

"It was really good from everyone. No one really stood out, we all just contributed what we needed to."

Jamie Krake top scored for Thornton with 48 and Jake Moore and Peter Gabriel both got 30s, while with the ball Jack Reeves picking up four wickets and Brent Dawes, Dean Bradford and Elliott Thompson two each.

In other clashes on the weekend, Kurri Weston had a comfortable six-wicket win against Eastern Suburbs led by an outstanding bowling effort by Jack Sylvester who took 4-22 off his 10 overs.

Ben Herring took 3-29 to help dismiss Easts for 133 in the 47^th over. Lachie Wishart top scored with 28 not out.

Kurri Weston skipper Steve Abel finished on 38 not out and Liam Neild made 27 as the Warriors made 4/134 in reply of 24 overs.

In the remaining game Tenambit Morpeth Bulls secured a four-wicket win over Raymond Terrace positing 6/120 in reply to the Lions' 118.