TIMING isn’t always the easiest attribute for batsmen to come by in the early weeks of the season, but Purton got it spot on in their run chase against Spye Park in Wiltshire Division One on Saturday.

Chasing 125 on a typically fast track under increasingly leaden skies, Tom Bowler and Phil Duffell cantered past the required total within 24 overs and just a handful of minutes before the clouds opened.

It was an important victory following the frustration of opening-day defeat to Bradford on Avon - and a success which returned a maximum 25-point haul to the home side.

Reflecting on the chase, Duffell recounted how he and Bowler recognised the need to get the job done as soon as possible.

He said: “We were both looking around every over at the darkening skies and thinking ‘right, we’ve got to go for this now’.

“Funnily enough we were off the field about five minutes and it absolutely started to chuck it down. It was what you could call a well-timed run chase. We just about got it done in time.

“We were lucky until then because the only other rain interference we had was towards the end of their innings and so we just took an early tea and didn’t lose anything out of the game.

“It was really important because losing the first game of the season was a little bit of a setback for us, having made no secret that promotion was our aim for this year. So it was really important that the game after that we got back to a win.

“Last week was a narrow defeat but a defeat nonetheless so it was good to get a win and a really good win as well. That just restores everybody’s confidence in our ability to actually get promotion, which is the target this year for the whole club.”

Although Duffell with his unbeaten 47 and Bowler’s swashbuckling 69 not out brought the win home for Purton, it was the bowling attack - spearheaded by Karl Marillier who returned a stupidly economic 3-14 from his 10 overs - who laid the foundations for the victory.

And Duffell was quick to praise his seamers, saying: “To be honest it was set up by the bowlers. It was a good toss to win to start with because we knew there was the possibility of bad weather, we put them in and our bowlers did fantastically well.

“Purton is generally a very good batting track and so 124 was below par.

“It was all the bowlers, they all chipped in, the wickets were evenly spread and economy rates were very low, so it was a very good all-round bowling performance which set it up for the batters.

“It was just a case of us bringing it home and doing it a little bit quicker.”