BIDDESTONE team boss Kevin Mitchell is relieved that his team are heading into their trip to high-flying Rockhampton in fine fettle following their derby victory last weekend.

The Cuttle Lane outfit notched up their third win in a row by beating Burbage & Easton Royal in a tight, low-scoring contest, with Andy Flynn’s side running out 37-run victors.

On Saturday, Biddestone make the trip to South Gloucestershire to take on title-chasers Rockhampton, who are joint-top of the Glos/Wilts Division alongside Chippenham, and Mitchell says that his troops are full of confidence, taking inspiration from the form of their ‘star’ men.

“What you’d call our star batsmen – Dwaine Perry and Dom Hendricks – are both scoring runs at the moment and when your best guys are playing well, other people get more confident,” said Mitchell.

“It’s nice that we’re in good form going into a game against Rockhampton.

“We’ve struck up a bit of a rivalry with them and we always have good games against them. They’re a good side but we’re going there with confidence in the team.”

Biddestone elected to bat first and lost their first seven wickets for 162 before top-scorer Akito Jacques helped steady the ship with a knock of 43.

Perry (34), Hendricks (26) and Michael Flynn (24) all contributed, whilst James Lavis led the bowling for Burbage with 4-33.

Visiting captain Tom Wallbridge also took 3-35 as Biddestone were dismissed for 178 with an over to spare.

Daniel Wootton (39) got the visitors’ highest score, whilst opener Jon Chandler made 22 as Burbage toiled.

Perry (3-8) and Subash Theiventhirarajah (3-35) turned the screw and the pressure eventually told as Wallbridge’s men were skittled for 141 early in the 46th over.

Mitchell added: “It was an important game for us because Burbage are right near us in the table and if we’d lost, we would have been cut adrift a bit.

“We were in a bit of trouble with seven wickets down but we managed to get ourselves to 180 and we’re always confident of defending a score like that – the bowlers did a really good job.

“We just want to finish as high as we can in the league to make sure that we stay in this division when the restructuring happens. That’s what we’re aiming for.”

Elsewhere, Chippenham edged back to the top of the pile with a 42-run home win over county rivals Warminster.

Darryl Lopser led the way for Lee Ward’s men with a knock of 72, whilst Owen Alsop also found his range as he weighed in with 62.

Graham Cuthbertson took two wickets but Brad Dawson added 28 as Chippenham posted 224-7.

Pete Hickerton (43) top-scored for Warminster as they set about putting together a run-chase but they were put under the cosh by Tom Young, who claimed figures of 3-11.

Ankit Shastri (28) and Desmond Kruger (23) also did their best to spark a fightback but their efforts eventually fell short as they were dismissed for 182 with just under four overs of their innings remaining.