“THEY will stay up comfortably – I’d put my mortgage on that.”

These are the words of James Finch, captain of the Yorkshire Premier League North’s form team Woodhouse Grange CC, about tomorrow’s struggling opponents, Harrogate.

The 2016 champions currently sit second-bottom in the table while Grange are flying high in second on the back of a three-game winning run, with their last defeat coming against Yorkshire Academy a month ago.

Now Grange are being touted as title-contenders, while Harrogate are a surprise inclusion in discussions about relegation.

But, Finch says, neither are ideas that he has dwelled too long on. Rather, something in the bigger picture has caught his attention at Sandhill Lane.

He said: “One massive positive I see is eight out of 11 players that play week in, week out are Woodhouse Grange lads, as in they’ve grown up there or have been there at least five years as a minimum.

“Everybody cares for the club and is passionate about doing their best for the club. It’s really refreshing to see lads at a premier league club caring deeply about the club, not just the team, and seeing it improve and move forward.

“A few people are saying ‘you guys could win the league’ but it’s not in our minds, we’re just trying to be competitive.

“If we can win cups and leagues, then happy days, but we’re just aiming to be competitive, and that continues on Saturday against Harrogate where we’ll just be looking to come out on top.

“We definitely hope we’ll have enough, and if we do lose, it won’t be for lack of effort or trying. Harrogate have a team of match-winners and I’m shocked they’re in the bottom two.

“I think they’ve got some very good players and I definitely don’t think they will be in the bottom two at the end of the season. They’ll stay up and stay up comfortably – I’d put my mortgage on that.

“It should be a good game.

“We’re likely to be missing one of the Tennant brothers, but we don’t know which one yet. They’re farmers and the harvest has started, which is a shame because they’re both fantastic cricketers.

“It’ll probably be the same most weeks from now on, but we knew all along, it’s no shock.

“I would imagine if we had spoken before the first game of the season, nobody would have expected us to be in the top two challenging York.

“Obviously it’s really nice to have people saying nice things about us and we’re doing well, which is really good, but we’re still doing the same things as when we started – we practise hard midweek in the nets and we play hard on Saturday and we see what comes of it.”

Grange’s vanquished opponents from last week, Stamford Bridge, will be looking to get over their eight-wicket defeat when they host table-toppers York, who last week enjoyed the lion’s share of the points in a winning draw at Sessay. Sessay host Castleford tomorrow.

Bottom side Acomb are the visitors to Yorkshire Academy who earned the winning draw over Harrogate last week. Scarborough host Sheriff Hutton Bridge, who earned a winning draw last week at home to Clifton Alliance, while Alliance travel to Driffield Town.