Battling Hosiery Mills are still without a win

But captain Adam Dobb believes they are improving week by week and feels a first win may not be too far away.

However, this weekend they visit a Clifton Village side who pulled off a sensational away win at leaders Cavaliers & Carrington on Saturday which knocked them off top spot.

“We do need a win and we have Clifton on Saturday, who have just beaten the Cavaliers - so they will be up and about,” said Dobb.

“But we have taken a lot from each week. We got better this week with the bat and in previous weeks we have got better with the ball. Hopefully on Saturday we can put it all into one performance.”

Last Saturday Attenborough won the toss and batted, making 247-8 in their 50 overs. Openers Ben Shaw (36) and Savin Perera (43) set them up with 62 but, after losing wickets, Zak Tribe (56 not out) batting at seven, and James Tilbury (28), batting at nine, added crucial late runs.

Daniel Harris took 3-64 and Adam Dobb 3-38.

Stephen Gooding's 56 was the highlight of a gutsy reply that fell short at 235 all out in 49 overs. Patrick Delahunty made 25, Dane Schadendorf 26, Matt Dean 25 and Jake Miller 25 while Tilbury took 4-44.

“We bowled really well as a side, but they had a couple of lads that batted really well down the order,” said Dobb.

“That can happen at Hosiery Mills as it's a small ground and the wicket did pretty well. They just put on 20 or 30 more than we probably expected to be chasing. The lads battled hard when they were batting and it was nice to see some of them get a start.”

He added: “It was also good to see Stephen get his first 50 of the season.

“But we just fell short. On another day when you have some momentum behind you, you'd have expected to win it. But there were some good signs moving forward, that's for sure.

“We were always up and around the run rate we wanted to set ourselves for the last 10 overs. We then lost wickets at the wrong time, though full credit to Attenborough – they bowled well at the end.”