WITH league legend Joe Scuderi in their ranks as an amateur, a handful of proven senior performers, a potential county all-rounder of the future in Stuart Lemon and a strike bowler as their new professional, Nelson are understandably many people's favourites for the Musbury Fabrics Lancashire League title.

Despite an early season blip at jinxed venue Rawtenstall, maximum points over the holiday weekend have given the Seedhill outfit a top-three slot behind surprise leaders Lowerhouse.

Nelson, record 21-times winners of the title, have already beaten Bacup and defending champions East Lancashire, but skipper Mick Bradley insists there must be more to come if his side is to finish top of the pile for the first time since 1999.

"We are not firing on all cylinders. We have won three out of four, but we need to improve. We are probably only playing at 70-80 per cent," said Bradley.

"We need to improve our batting. We are not getting enough runs on the board consistently yet. We have got off to some reasonable starts, but not got the 200-plus scores we need."

That was certainly the case at Rishton on Sunday where a solid foundation petered out and it took some runs at the bottom end of the order to set up a 30-run victory.

From a position of 65-2, Nelson slumped to 117-7 as Garth Wyse started his spell with two wicket-maidens and Scuderi holed out for 33 when the former Lancashire man looked set for a big score.

However, Danny Kegg then held things together with an unbeaten 21, sharing an eight-wicket stand of 29 with Martin Heap and a ninth-wicket partnership of 16 with Kurrum Nazir, who crashed 14 off eight balls with a six and one four to take the total to 182-9.

Kegg and Heap then played their part with the ball after Lemon, who is set to link up with the county next season, had reduced Rishton's reply to 19-3.

Professional James Franklin had put on 73 with Richard Rostron and made an impressive 50 before he played on to Heap.

The ball before, Franklin had clipped his seventh boundary behind square-leg to go past his half-century off 83 deliveries and the New Zealand all-rounder, on stand-by for the Kiwis touring squad this summer, again impressed.

"He batted very well and seems to have a good head on him. I think he good have a good season and we had a bit of luck when he played on. I was glad the ball had enough on it to take off the bails," admitted Bradley.

"It was a tough game. Rishton look to have a better side than last season and look pretty competitive.

"We got some good runs down the order and that might have been the difference between winning and losing.

"Danny Kegg and Martin Heap then bowled very well in the middle of the innings by keeping it tight. We wanted to build up the pressure to make them have to play some shots late on and give us the chance to take wickets, which is what happened."

After the departure of Franklin, who had hit professional Cameron Cuffy out of the attack with three fours in the 15th-over, Rishton were always up against it, despite Rostron's gutsy effort.

West Indian paceman Cuffy, who set the bench-mark with five-wicket hauls against both Bacup and East Lancs, returned to mop up the tail in partnership with the perservering Heap, who finished with 4-43 as Nelson wrapped up the win with an over to spare.

It was not the most convincing performance but points win prizes and with their best yet to come, Bradley is hopeful of a serious title tilt.

"We have got a chance," he said. If we can keep all our players fit, we've got every chance."