PURTON survived the wet weekend weather to give their hopes of beating the drop in WEPL Wiltshire a big shot in the arm thanks to a crucial 96-run success at home to fellow strugglers Hinton Charterhouse.

The result saw Tom Whittaker’s side climb off the bottom of the table, with Charterhouse having replaced them at the foot of the standings.

Upon being asked to bat by Charterhouse after the visitors won the toss, Purton got off to a strong start as openers Phil Duffell (48) and Jack Goodwin (31) shared an opening stand of 70.

The home side reached 100 for the loss of just one wicket and although they wobbled in the middle of the innings, Neil Little’s unbeaten 37 saw them post a decent total of 182-9.

Purton made a quick start after tea as Keron Bennett-Thomas (3-22) dismissed each of the top three in the Charterhouse batting order.

Adam Woolford then took over with the ball and a devastating spell yielded excellent figures of 5-30 as the visitors collapsed to 86 all out.

Captain Whittaker was relieved the damp conditions did not damage his side’s chances, and said both teams were determined to make the best of it on a difficult day given the threat of relegation that still looms over them.

“Looking at the weather that was around on Saturday, I think we got a bit fortunate,” said Whittaker.

“It was pretty wet when we got there but the game was only cut down to 46 overs per side initially and we only came off twice for the rain.

“Considering where both teams are in the table, we both really needed a win so we were prepared to stick around all day.

“It was probably our best all-round performance of the season in terms of our batting, our bowling and our fielding.

“To get to 182 was definitely at least a par score. It gave us momentum going into tea and it was definitely a defendable score.

“Keron bowled incredibly well up front and took three quick wickets, and that was superbly backed up by Adam. He produced a few unplayable deliveries as part of his five-for.

“We haven’t had Adam as much as we would like this year but whenever he plays, he brings some real quality to our bowling attack and some real discipline.”

Elsewhere, the rain all but put an end to Swindon’s outside chances of winning the title as their home match against Potterne 2nd was abandoned.

Marc Williamson’s side did not bat at all but picked up 10 league points after reducing Potterne to 130-8 midway through the first innings before the weather brought a premature halt to proceedings.

Third-placed Swindon are now 67 points below leaders Marshfield with three games to go.

The table-toppers were able to strengthen their own position following a nine-wicket win at Royal Wootton Bassett.

Tom Clist’s four wickets had helped bowl Bassett out for just 73 and Marshfield eased over the winning line inside 12 overs of their reply, reaching 74-1.