WHEN Darren Beasant saw the fixture list for the new campaign, he knew that Warminster away for his Royal Wootton Bassett side was one of the toughest starts they could have had.

The Gerard Buxton Sports Ground side were returning to the West of England Premier League this term after winning the Wiltshire League, while their Sambourne Road hosts had been relegated from Premier Two Glos/Wilts.

Yet despite all this, it was Bassett who returned home victorious following their five-wicket success.

After winning the toss, Beasant gambled by asking the hosts to bat first on what appeared to be a good batting track.

While Neilon Joseph made an early breakthrough with the new ball by bowling Tristian Lundqvist, who had failed to trouble the scorers, it was the Bassett spin trio of Asanka Vithange (1-18), Ian Lancaster (2-22) and Ben Batchelor (3-10) that did the damage as Warminster were bowled out for 168.

“Over the last couple of years we have done a lot of bowling first and chasing down targets – it takes the pressure off the batsmen a little,” Beasant said.

“But when we turned up at Warminster, I didn’t know what to do, the wicket looked like an absolute motorway.

“You just didn’t know what a good score would be. Was it 280? 300? 350? So I took a bit of gamble and it paid off.

“Our spinners bowled really well, they took 6-50 between them and then we backed it up with the bat.”

Bassett’s reply got off to a steady start with New Zealander Jared McDonald and Sam Lawro putting on 36 for the opening wicket before the overseas batsman edged Dominic Webb behind to David Bateman for 14 and Lawro fell soon after to leave the visitors 39-2.

Beasant (44) and Jack Twine (31) then put on 62 for the third wicket before they quickly followed each back to the pavilion with Bassett on 105-4.

Jack Paish was run out for four before Akash Sharma (25 not out) and Joseph (16*) saw the visitors home in the 46th over.

Swindon got their season off to a winning start as they beat last year’s runners up Marshfield by nine wickets.

Opening bowler Cameron Baden led the charge for Swindon as his 3-26 gave Phil DeFreitas’ side the platform to go and bowl the hosts out for 139.

In reply, Paul Paginton (12) was the only Swindon batsman to fall as fellow opener Chris Aubrey (63*) and skipper Alex Kill (48*) saw the visitors home in the 25th over.

Purton were another team celebrating a first win of the campaign as they beat Trowbridge by 164 runs.

Batting first, Purton were dismissed for 265 with wicketkeeper Samuel Bull top-scoring with 53, while number 10 batsman, Callum Wright, chipped in with a 32-ball 44.

The hosts made quick inroads into the Trowbridge batting with Aaron Lee (2-31), Wright (3-45), Adam Woolford (3-10), Tom Bowler (2-8) sharing the wickets as the visitors were bowled out in just 20.5 overs.