REDDITCH captain Nev Mason is pinning his faith on his side's proven home form to save the club from the drop into the Worcestershire County League.

Saturday's abandonment has left the Birmingham Road side stuck in the relegation zone, fourth from bottom of Division Three and 11 points adrift of fifth from bottom Whitchurch.

But Mason remained confident of beating the drop.

"The fact is we have got very good home form," said the Redditch skipper, "we have to concentrate on that and if we can get one or two results away from home we will be in the top half.

"But on the other hand we have only won one or two games away from home in two years."

Mason's side were left frustrated by a damp squib against Ombersely on Saturday which allowed the visitors to force a draw. Redditch only managed to fit in an hour's bowling before the rains came and held up play for two-and-a-half hours.

By that time the hosts had managed to make few inroads with Ombersley stubbornly resisting on 60-0.

When play eventually resumed there were a maximum of 47 overs to play for both sides and rather than bat for half of that and chase a result, the visitors continued, closing out the game after reaching 202-8 declared and leaving Redditch just ten overs on a wet wicket.

"We had no choice but to abandon the game," explained a frustrated Mason, "if we had gone out to bat we would not have got any more points and if we had lost wickets we would just have been giving them bowling points.

"I had spoken to their captain to try and persuade him to get a game on but it didn't happen. It was very frustrating because Jeff Russell, Robin Biddle and John Lostitch all bowled well in difficult conditions. For the first few overs the weather was alright but once it began to get damp it was like bowling a bar of soap."

But Mason believes his side's experience of being at the wrong end of the table will help them hold their nerve at the sharp end of the season.

"The positive is that we've been in this situation for the last four or five years," he added, "this time last year we were third and pushing for promotion and then a few things went against us and we ended up battling against relegation.

"The problem in this league is that if anyteam gets off to a flier it's a case of any four of the rest going down."

Redditch can secure vital points at Whitchurch on Saturday (1pm start).