TOM Bowler praised the efforts of his understrength Purton side on Saturday after making a winning start to their West of England Premier Cricket League campaign against Calne.

The stand-in skipper starred for Purton as they chased down a target of 258 with seven balls remaining, Bowler top scoring for the home side with an excellent 144 from just 153 balls.

Purton picked up 18 league points for their efforts, meaning they sit fifth in the WEPL Wiltshire division after one round of matches.

Bowler said: “It was a good run chase.

“We’ve got a lot of people missing at the moment through work commitments, so we didn’t have a strong side. We had to win the toss to stand a chance.

“Everything went to plan on the day.

“We did our best with the players we had, and I was particularly impressed by Callum Flay who made his first team debut at 14 and picked up three wickets.”

While Bowler’s knock of 144 ultimately carried Purton across the line, the all-rounder insisted a series of double figure scores throughout the middle order helped his men across the line.

He said: “We kept up with the run rate and understandably Calne got a little tired.

“We kept grinding away and took advantage of their mistakes.

“Hopefully we’ll have a few players back this week.”

Elsewhere in the division Swindon crashed to a four-wicket loss at Warminster.

Openers Chris Aubrey and Sean Parker made a good start for Swindon, who won the toss and elected to bat first.

The pair put on 35 for the first wicket before Aubrey was caught.

While Parker added 31 to Swindon’s score, only number five Liam Tucker could pass double figures from there as Alex Kill’s side were skittled out for 110.

Warminster made relatively light work of the run chase, reaching 105-3 before losing three wickets before passing Swindon’s marker.

Meanwhile Jack Twine’s half century guided Royal Wootton Bassett to a 31-run win at Marshfield.

There was no such luck to Lechlade though, who lost their opening Premier Two Glos/Wilts match at Westbury by 76 runs.