KIDDERMINSTER skipper Neil Pinner says confidence will be key to his side returning to winning ways.

KCC lost their third successive game of the new campaign at Kenilworth last Saturday. Pinner's men suffered an 81-run defeat as their batting let them down once again.

The captain is now targeting a first success of the season when Brockhampton visit this Saturday (noon start) and thinks one win would quickly turn their fortunes around.

He said: "It was the same story as the week before. We have bowled reasonably well to limit them to an achievable total but the failed with the bat.

"I think it is about confidence and also about us getting that little bit of luck at the right moment.

"We need to take it one game at a time and just work on building good partnerships with the bat. Everyone is working really hard and once we get that first win I think we'll go from strength-to-strength. We'll have something to build on and something to take confidence from.

"We'll be aiming to get that first win against Brockhampton at home this Saturday. They came up last year and have won one of their games so far when Daryl Mitchell hit a big score, but I don't think he'll be available this weekend which would be a be positive for us.

"I don't think we're too far away. I certainly can't fault the team's work-rate and application."

After winning the toss and batting, Kenilworth lost their first wicket for one run when Ben Rex was caught by keeper Rob Cross off the bowling of Liam Weston. Two more wickets fell as the score rose to 42. Nick Seager (14) was bowled by Weston, then Bazit Zaman (16) gave him a third wicket with a second catch by Cross.

By the 26th over, the home team was standing at 105-6, with Kidderminster seemingly on top. But the next wicket didn’t fall until 46 runs had been added in 10 overs. A good stand between Harry Johnson and Kamran Anwar got Kenilworth back on course.

The score went from 151-7 to 174-8 before Richard Kimberlin took the wicket of Anwar (36) with a catch by Craig Wood. However, Kenilworth were in good form and in the final seven overs scored 60 runs.

Charlie Stainforth was a surprising opener for Kidderminster, but did score 34 runs off 91 balls, including four fours. The only other batsman of note was Kimberlin with 38, striking six fours and one six as the visitors were all out for 153.

The weekend didn't get much better for KCC as they suffered a 64-run loss to Old Hill in the National Knock-out Cup a day later.

Opening bowler Pat Brown and wicketkeeper Tom Kimberlin are both set to return this Saturday with Marc Edwards and Cross likely to miss out.