PURTON captain Aaron Lee hopes they can finally claim they are safe in WEPL Wiltshire this weekend when they travel to local rivals Royal Wootton Bassett.

Lee’s side may be sitting fourth but there is no guarantee of their place in the division next year with just 27 points separating third-from-bottom Marlborough and third-placed Devizes with two games left.

Despite three victories in their last three outings, Lee knows their fate is far from secure, having seen a trio of sides drop out of the league last term.

“If it does play out that three teams are relegated, I think it will be extremely unfair on whoever of us ends up in that third-from-bottom slot,” he said.

“No one in that group of six deserves to go in the league below, that’s for sure.

“When we won two weeks ago, we thought, that’s it, we’re safe now but then we looked at the table and thought, no we’re not, then we looked again after Saturday’s game and thought, we’ve got to be safe now only to find out we’re still not.

“I hope it plays out that no one has anything to worry about but I guess it keeps things exciting going into the last couple of games. It’s still in our hands, which is the most important thing and we’ve got to keep playing good cricket.”

Bassett are also in that mix of six teams despite their seven wins this season to date, with one of those coming in a 96-run success away to Purton back in June and Lee is keen to right that result.

“I had no idea what to expect from Bassett,” he added. “As I said at the start of the year, we haven’t played them for a long, long time and it is almost completely different sides playing this season.

“Darren (Beasant, skipper) said that if they had six wins this season, they’d be safe and that has all been turned on it’s head.

“It should be a good game and we’ll want to perform better than we did when they came and beat us convincingly.

“We’ll be seeing if we can do the same to them. It could be the game where we may actually realise we’re safe.”

Such is the congestion in Premier One, that with two matches remaining Lechlade could still conceivably finish anywhere from runners-up spot to the second relegation place as they travel to Frocester tomorrow.

Freddie Martin’s side will probably settle for securing their top-flight status but are only 33 points behind second-placed Clevedon - whom they defeated last weekend - yet just 22 in front of second-from-bottom Potterne, with just this weekend’s trip and a home appointment against third-placed Bristol to come, having won their last three matches to take them to the brink of safety.