FOUR wickets and a valiant 45 from Tom Bowler helped Purton claim a two-wicket win on an enthralling trip to Marlborough.

Purton looked set for a short afternoon after dismissing the home side for just 95 but the reply was anything but easy and Aaron Lee’s men had lost eight wickets by the time they finally scraped over the line.

Captain Lee said: “It was as nervy one in the end, it was a lot closer than we thought.

“We knew it would be a tough fixture but we went there with the mentality that we had nothing to lose and luckily we were just about able to hold on.”

After winning the toss and electing to field, Lee’s men were soon into their stride at the Savernake Forest Ground.

Although there was some resistance from home captain Arran Dickinson (25) the introduction of Bowler (4-17) and Patrick Whittaker (3-17) into the attack decimated Marlborough and they were dismissed for a meagre 95 off 35 overs.

Lee added: “We bowled fantastically well. Tom Whittaker bowled for the first time in a few years, and did really well opening the bowling, and Tom Bowler and Patrick Whittaker were really good too.

“They kept the pressure on and didn’t allow them to get away from us.”

Purton would have fancied their chances of making light work of such a lowly run chase, but Ben Head was determined to give them a rough ride.

The Marlborough bowler produced an inspired spell of 5-21 – including taking a brilliant hat-trick – to give his side a chance of an unlikely win against all the odds.

But Purton ace Bowler was again the hero for his side as his stubborn 45 got the visitors close to the winning line and they were within 10 runs of victory when he became the last man to fall.

The tail eventually did see them home at 96-8 in the 28th over as Purton moved up to sixth in the table with the win.

“It was a really tough batting track and it was hard to score runs against the spin,” said Lee.

“We didn’t realise as we bowled our seamers straight through, but they brought the spinners on early.

“Ben Head is a really good bowler and Marlborough were really up for it. Credit to them, you have to make it as hard as you can when you’re defending a low total.

“We were about 40-1 so if we had lost from there it would have been really bad. Thankfully Tom batted really well and his 45 won us the game.”