NATHAN Round is happy with Old Hill’s start to the season - but believes it is far too early to start worrying about league position.

Old Hill are nicely poised in third after six games of the Birmingham League Division One season.

But skipper Round is paying little attention to the standings as he tries to take a more long-term view.

He said: “I’m trying not to look at them too much really.

“It’s still early days and there’s five or six teams who can make a serious run at it.

“If we can stay there or thereabouts I’ll be happy. In the last two years we have put ourselves in great positions later in the season but not seen it through.

“That’s the time when we really need to perform.”

Round’s side made it three wins on the bounce with an emphatic display at Shifnal.

Nigel Davenport and Kyle Hodnett were the pick of the bowlers as the hosts were dismissed for just 170.

Then, in a rare departure from the recent thrillers involving Old Hill, they were able to knock off the runs in relative ease to win by six wickets.

Round was delighted with the all round performance.

He said: “We bowled really well on what was a pretty good pitch despite the rain.

“Then we were solid when batting - we were comfortable throughout.

“I have to say the game was a whole lot easier on the heart-strings than some of our recent ones - I don’t think the supporters were complaining!

“I think we are starting to find our feet a bit now, when you look at it we do have a young batting line-up.

“One of the most pleasing things has been the bowling.

“I’d say this year we have a more traditional league bowling line-up, Ashfak Hussain has made a real difference in the middle overs.

“I think last year we maybe went too much with pace and it didn’t really work.”

Round is expecting a tough challenge on Saturday when they host Brockhampton - a team who were also in promotion contention last term.

Meanwhile Old Hill have made it through to the regional finals of the ECB national club Twenty20 competition.

Round’s side successfully negotiated their Birmingham League pool with wins over Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.

The regional finals take place on June 26 with the competition opening up on a national level after that.

Old Hill seconds came out second best in a tough encounter with Wolverhampton.

Wolves batted first and although the Old Hill bowlers Mitch Jeffery (2-19), Alex Hills (3-39) and Dan Jones (4-20) took wickets at regular intervals, Wolverhampton set a challenging score of 235 all out from 49.1 overs.

In reply, Old Hill’s openers Joe Thorn (26) and Alex Hills (54) put together an opening stand of 48 but only Connor Smith (61) showed any further resistance.

Old Hill lost their last seven wickets for just 32 runs and were bowled out for 170 in the 49th over.