LECHLADE’S Joe Breet anticipates that the Premier Two Glos/Wilts title battle to go on until the final throes of the season, and that suits him right down to the ground.

With victory over basement boys Burbage & Easton Royal last weekend, the Manor Ground men moved back to the top of the pile with six matches to go but with just 13 points separating the top four in the division, Lechlade are bracing themselves for plenty of twists of turns before the end of the current campaign.

Freddie Martin’s promotion-chasers go to second-in-the-table Rockhampton in their final game of 2016 on September 3 and they also take on title rivals Goatacre and Cheltenham before the summer is out.

However, former Wiltshire captain Breet plans to savour the coming weeks and is pleased that there is little danger of the current season petering out into a damp squib.

“In the second half of the season, everybody beats everybody. Wickets get better and teams get stronger because the players that are students are back, so it’s exciting,” said the Lechlade man.

“There are six games to go and plenty of cricket left to play, so the league is still really tight and I think the top five or six teams will shuffle around a lot between now and the end of the season.

“I think that it’s going to go right down until the last game and that’s great – you’d prefer it to be like that than one side just run away with it and the last few games be dead rubbers.

“We play a lot of teams from the top half in our last few games and a couple of those are away, so it’s going to be tough but we’ve got to look forward to it.”

On Saturday, Lechlade host eighth-placed Gloucester City Winget, with revenge on the mind for the Breet and co following their 33-run loss at the Spa Ground back in May.

Breet added: “When we went there before, we failed to chase down a score of 215.

“We only got 180 or 190 but I think we’ve learned the lessons from that match.

“We know that it’s not going to be an easy game but we’ll try and make a plan for their good players and hopefully we can get another good result.”