Failand & Portbury are hoping to end their home hoodoo when they host Senior Division basement side St Mary Redcliffe in the Bristol & District League tomorrow.

Despite boasting a 100 per cent record on their travels following wins against St Mary Redcliffe, Chew Magna, Almondsbury and Hampset, they have yet to taste victory on their home ground.

That is a statistic which skipper Alastair McArthur is desperate to change this weekend.

While last summer's Division I champions Cleeve occupy one of the two relegation places, Failand, who went up with them, are fifth thanks to their four wins on the road.

Crucially, McArthur has won the toss before each of the away wins, but he has yet to do so at home. McArthur admits he prefers his side to field first then chase down the opposition total, especially with two of his batsmen, Hugo Hanchet and Ed Humphreys, in form.

Hanchet smacked 106 from 100 balls, including 15 fours and 2 sixes, last weekend while Humphreys has hit 53, 85 and 75 in his last three matches.

"Hugo is a very talented player. Maybe he hasn't scored as many runs as he would have liked this year but he has been fairly consistent," said McArthur. "And Ed is the third highest run-scorer in the league.

"But while we have had a consistent top order, we seem to struggle to put out the same numbers four, five and six.

"We have been in good positions with between 150 and 200 runs on the board after 30 overs but we haven't been able to go on and score 250-plus.

"We would like to score 260 at home but we are getting 230 or 240 – we are coming up 20 runs short."

McArthur is in his third season as captain at Failand and he is enjoying every minute.

He added: "It has been easy in the sense that we have practically the same team as last year.

"Everyone is roughly the same age and we are athletic in the field, which helps. It's not been too bad, but I would like that first home win."