SWINDON continued their quest for WEPL Wiltshire honours this season with a sixth win from nine games following a five-wicket victory at home to Westbury & District on Saturday.

The result means Marc Williamson’s side reach the halfway point of the campaign sitting third in the table, 32 points behind leaders Marshfield – the only side to have beaten them this summer.

Swindon looked in for a tough afternoon upon losing the toss, with Westbury opting to bat and passing 50 before a wicket went down.

However, Alex Kill (3-29) and Adam Tucker (2-33) began to get a grip on proceedings and Westbury fell from a strong position at 124-2 to 202-9 at the end of their 50 overs as Dan Gill (55) top scored.

The Swindon reply got off to a shaky start as they fell to 18-2 as opening pair Williamson and Christy Millar were sent back to the pavilion.

However, Tucker (65) and Kill (57) again came to the fore for the hosts and the score had reached 160 before both were dismissed.

Chris Aubrey (32no) and Conor Taylor (24) then finished off the run chase without much alarm as Swindon finished on a winning 204-5 with more than three overs to spare.

Captain Williamson said: “It wasn’t a great toss to lose as it was probably the hottest day of the year.

“At that point, you’re setting your mind up to work hard for a long spell in the field.

“Once we got going, we bowled really well and managed to restrict Westbury to a below-par score, so we went into the interval pretty content with how we’d done.

“Adam (Tucker) bowled nicely and carried on what he has been doing all season. He picked up a couple of wickets and restricted their big hitters in the middle overs too.

“Alex (Kill) bowled a good spell towards the end and ended up with three wickets and got us into the tea break facing a lower total than we had expected at the start of the day.

“We didn’t get off to the best of starts in our reply and Westbury took a couple of wickets early on but, again, Alex and Adam did a really good job for us.

“They batted really sensibly and built a score for us and didn’t play any silly shots. They got us into a strong position and guys behind them were able to finish it off without too many problems.

“Overall, it was a really good day for us and now we move onto the next one in good spirits.”

Elsewhere, Royal Wootton Bassett continued their upturn in fortunes with a six-wicket victory at home to Hinton Charterhouse.

Bassett lost their first seven fixtures this summer, but this success over Hinton was their second in a row and lifts them to fourth-from-bottom in the table.

Charterhouse won the toss and chose to bat first, but solid bowling from the home side saw them dismissed for just 134.

Akash Sharma led the attack with fine figures of 5-39, while captain Sam Lawro also picked up three wickets as James Jacob (48) top scored for Charterhouse.

Bassett got off to a quick start in reply and reached 50 before Charanveer Chahal became the first wicket to fall.

Fellow opener Das Rafiq continued the charge, though, and had got Bassett within 20 runs of victory when he fell for 60.

The home side had no problem easing over the winning line, finishing on 136-4 with exactly half of their 25 overs still to play.

There was not such good news for Purton and they remain on just two wins themselves this season following a seven-wicket defeat away at Calne.

Purton won the toss and chose to bat first but could only post 116 before being dismissed.

Opener Phil Duffell top scored with 44 but he was one of only three batsmen to reach double figures as Joseph Clare took four wickets for Calne.

The visitors then also struggled to make an impact with the ball and Navayugan Pararajah (46no) led Calne to a winning score of 117-3 inside 22 overs.