BOTH Swindon and Purton retained faint hopes of securing runners-up spot in WEPL Wiltshire after their respective victories this weekend.

While Trowbridge lifted the title with a game to spare, their victory over second-placed Marshfield left the door ajar for a chasing pack of four heading into the final day of the season this coming weekend.

Third-placed Purton appear in good shape to mount a challenge after their fourth straight win, by 48 runs, ended any hopes hosts Royal Wootton Bassett had of gate-crashing the top echelons of the table.

Put in, Purton’s innings was built around a third-wicket stand of 98 between Tom Bowler (50 from 74 balls) and Tom Whittaker (77 from 94) Sam Pinchin weighed in with 43 from 45 deliveries as the visitors’ middle order did considerable damage, taking them to 258-8 from 50 overs.

Bassett’s bowling effort was led by Ben Batchelor, who took 4-40 from his 10 overs, while Akash Sharma took 3-39 from nine.

The Bassett reply started solidly enough with Jared McDonald (11) and Neilon Joseph (35) putting on 44 for the opening wicket.

But despite the middle trio of Asanka Vithanage (20), Sam Lawro (53) and Sharma (34) making significant contributions, they lost wickets regularly.

Purton skipper Aaron Lee took 3-31 from his 10 overs, while Santhosh Iyengar claimed 3-33.

But Adam Woolford (4-26 in 8.5 overs) secured top bowling honours and mopped up the Bassett tail as the home side succumbed to 210 all out with seven balls of the innings remaining.

Swindon made it three wins on the trot to keep their top-two interest alive and pile more relegation worries on struggling Calne at the County Ground.

Put into bat, visiting Calne’s start was good, Jerron John (79) and Matthew Richards (35) putting on 84 for the third wicket, while skipper Sean Adams helped them over the 200 mark with 45.

Conor Taylor took 3-52 as the away side reached a competitive 221-7 from their 50 overs.

But Swindon skipper Alex Kill led from the front with an unbeaten 70 and Liam Tucker’s 37 as well as a generous 47 extras from the visitors got Swindon home for a five-wicket win in the 44th over.