PURTON skipper Aaron Lee still has one eye over his shoulder in WEPL Wiltshire despite securing a third-straight win at the weekend with an eight-wicket success at home to Warminster.

Having dispatched with Devizes and Marshfield, Warminster were in the crosshairs of Lee, who was able to win an important toss and put his visitors in to bat.

Nick Hembury was quickly dismissed without a run to his name to bring in Warminster skipper Peter Hickerton, who proved a tough nut to crack.

Purton did not make things easy for themselves however, putting down the batsman three times before Tom Bowler finally held on to one off the bowling of Elijah Samuel.

With Hickerton (47) heading back to the pavilion, Warminster were already in all sorts of trouble, having seen six more wickets fall for just 36 runs, with the visitors on 106-8.

The visitors were only able to add three more to that score before being skittled inside 34 overs, leaving Purton a very small target to chase down.

They made light work of the task as Samuel (36 not out) and Tom Whittaker (52*) saw the hosts home inside 21 overs for the loss of just two wickets.

“It was a strange game,” said Lee. “It was damp because we had had a lot of rain so we knew it would be a difficult track to bat on.

“It was going to be difficult the whole game but it definitely got easier to bat on so, it was a key toss for us to win.

“Warminster seem to have tailed off in recent weeks and that was good for us. We still put out a very strong performance.

“The wicket of Peter Hickerton was key and we gave him three lives. We dropped him three times.

“We didn’t field well at all but I was really pleased with how the guys bowled and how we batted.”

Despite their run of three wins, fourth-placed Purton are still only 22 points above third-from-bottom Marlborough, with only 27 points separating Devizes in third place and the bottom three.

With three sides having been relegated last term, Lee will not be letting his side take their foot off the gas as they travel to Royal Wootton Bassett this weekend, who completed an eight-wicket victory of their own on Saturday over bottom side Calne.

“It’s just a shame that none of the other results went our way,” added Lee.

“All that has happened is that, what was a four team race to stay out of that third from bottom spot is now a six team race.

“It’s a crazy, crazy league this year.”

Swindon are also firmly in that mid-table pack as well despite their four-wicket success at home to runaway leaders Trowbridge as they chased down a target of 132 within 36 overs.