HIMLEY CC skipper Greg Wright says his side must stamp out the silly mistakes which threaten to derail their Birmingham League title hopes.

The skipper saw his side edged out in a nail-biting two wicket defeat to reigning champions Knowle and Dorridge last weekend, as they lost ground in the title race.

It follows a similar narrow loss at Kenilworth two weeks ago, while there have been numerous occasions where Himley have fallen just short of maximum points.

Wright pointed to a dropped catch with the visitors five short of victory as an example of where his side must start capitalising on their chances .

He said: “We can’t afford to finish on the wrong end of these close games for much longer.

“We are making little errors here and there which are costing us at crucial times or letting the other sides back in the game.

“We need to stamp that out if we are going to challenge for the title.

“Generally we are still playing good cricket, I don’t think we are far off.”

The champions escaped from Stourbridge Road with 20 points as ninth wicket pair Tom Payne (23 not out) and Jamie Spires (14 not out) kept their nerve to help them over the line.

Earlier, Himley had amassed 200-9 after losing the toss and being asked to bat.

Wright top scored with 44, while useful contributions also came from Shafiq Ahmed (39 not out) and TP Singh (28).

Knowle started their reply well but good bowling by Ahmed (3-54) and Stuart Wedge (2-47) helped put the brakes on.

When William Mottram was the eighth wicket to fall with the score on 183, Himley sensed victory, only for Payne and Spires to deny them.

The result leaves Himley sixth in the table.

Wright said: “We did great to get as close as we did but it was agonising to lose.

“We we’re always slightly behind where we would like to have been during the game, losing the toss instantly put the pressure on.

“They got off to a really good start to their innings but we managed to peg them back and when we took the eighth wicket I thought we had a chance.”