CLIFTON Alliance CC are hopeful of dodging a relegation dog-fight come the end of this “competitive” Yorkshire Premier League North season.

Club secretary Bill Roddam has admitted Alliance “never got into it” in last week’s 122-run defeat at Driffield Town which saw them shunted down to ninth.

Tomorrow they face an in-form Harrogate, whose lowly position belies the good run they have enjoyed recently, collecting 40 points from their last six games.

Last week, they beat second-placed Woodhouse Grange by 77 runs.

But Roddam has highlighted this – along with fifth-placed Castleford’s ascent through the rankings – as evidence the league is far from a foregone conclusion.

He said: “I think we are in a relegation battle – we’re nine points above Sessay in second bottom – but we’re hopeful of avoiding it (later on).

“I think it’s a very competitive league this year and we’re in a position where nearly anybody could beat anybody else.

“Now we’re looking at every game and hoping to get a positive result, whereas last year we were thinking we weren’t going to get that from three or four teams.

“When we played Cas (a month ago), they were behind us and looking potentially like one of the teams in trouble, but since then have won six in a row.

“In the past three weeks, Harrogate have beaten two of the top three teams in the league, in York and Woodhouse Grange.”

Commenting on the disparity between the performance from last week and previous weeks, Roddam said: “We didn’t bat too well (at Driffield). It seems everyone had a collective off-day last Saturday.

“In the three weeks prior, we had probably batted better than previously and had some big scores – we hit a nearly couple of hundred at Sheriff Hutton Bridge when we were missing Scott Hopkinson, and against Acomb and Scarborough we got into the high 200s.

“It seems it was one of those days at Driffield. They hit 236, which is a decent score, but one you would hope to be getting somewhere near, but we never got into it.”

“Realistically, we weren’t expecting to be competing at the top of the league,” Roddam said on the topic of Alliance’s aspirations for the season, “but we're looking to do as well as we can.

“You wouldn’t say you’re surprised we are where we are, but we think it will be very tight until the end of the season.

“A couple of good results and you’re going well, but I think it will be close between quite a few teams. We need a few positive results between now and the end of the season.

“Harrogate are in good form, but if we can play well, we would be hopeful of a good result.”

Tomorrow, high-fliers Stamford Bridge and Sheriff Hutton Bridge square up at Low Catton Road, where leaders York were on the end of the wrong end of a losing draw last week.

York welcome Castleford to Clifton Park while Woodhouse Grange travel to bottom side Acomb and Sessay visit Driffield.