PURTON were stunned by bottom side Malmesbury as they slipped to a third straight defeat.

Malmesbury had been without a league win in 2015 but put the form book to one side against Aaron Lee’s visitors to romp to a convincing 68-run success.

Although it is still early in the season, the defeat will be a bitter blow for Purton and they are now third-from-bottom in the standings, just six points above the drop zone.

After losing the toss and being asked to bowl, Purton made an early inroad as skipper Lee removed Malmesbury opener Mark Toseland cheaply, although his partner George Royle (41) provided stubborn resistance to frustrate the visiting attack.

Adam Woolford eventually dismissed him on his way to impressive figures of 3-24, although number six batsman James Pearce-Smith then took up the mantle for the home side.

Wickets continued to fall around him but Pearce-Smith continued unperturbed to finish unbeaten on 39 and help his team post a more than challenging total of 186 all out.

Patrick Whittaker returned a useful 3-38 with the ball for Purton, while Imran Ashraf also chipped in with 2-28.

The Purton reply got off to a disastrous start as the top three batsmen of Mark Gardner, Neil Little and Tom Bowler were all back in the pavilion with just 17 runs on the board.

Samuel Pinchin (36) tried to kick-start the visitors into life with a valiant knock but only Ashraf (30) and Santhosh Iyengar offered any real support as Purton eventually limped to a lacklustre 118 all out.

George Boyle (3-45) led the charge with the ball for Malmesbury, while there were two wickets apiece for Josh Langley, Fin Beldon and Jack Ward as they wrapped up the win in the 34th over.

Meanwhile, Marlborough extended their lead at the top of the division to 16 with a 61-run at Great Bedwyn.

Marlborough elected to bat on a slow wicket which gave little help to the bowlers and they closed on 252-3 with Ben Head (90) and Peter Day (67*) leading the way with the bat.

Bedwyn got their reply off to a good start before Head dismissed John Palmer (7) to signal the fall of wickets.

A 50-run partnership between Rich Bossam and Neil Maycock briefly looked to threaten the Marlborough total before the hosts were dismissed for 191 with Will Langton (3-36) leading the charge with the ball.