PURTON captain Tom Whittaker admitted his team were far from their best against fellow WEPL Wiltshire strugglers Hinton Charterhouse, despite recording a three-wicket win at the weekend.

Saturday’s victory, which was primarily down to a fine century by opener Elijah Samuel, lifted Purton above their opposition and into seventh place in the 10-team table.

The victory might have been far simpler to come by if Purton’s bowlers had capitalised when reducing the visitors to 110-9, but a last-stand partnership of 43 runs pushed the total to 153 all out and Purton faced an uphill task to record their second win of the season after tea.

Opening batsman Samuel struck 100 off 90 balls before being bowled by Huw Lee as he pushed his teammates close to their target at 140-7.

Kurt Sealy and Connor Cleary then diligently knocked off the remaining runs to record a tense victory for Whittaker’s young side.

Admitting his side still have plenty to work on in the coming weeks, Whittaker said: “It was a really important win.

“We definitely weren’t at our best, but we showed real character to dig in and grind out a result.

“Conditions made it quite difficult to bowl. We won the toss and bowled first but it was extremely windy, so that made it very difficult to bowl, especially from one end.

“We weren’t as disciplined as we could have been – we probably allowed Hinton to score 40 more runs than they should have.

“That being said, Connor Clearly (4-30) and Adam Woolford (3-24) bowled really well, and we restricted them to 153 all out, although we did have them at 110-9 at one stage.

“That last partnership gained them about 40 runs, so that was frustrating.”

Whittaker championed the efforts of opening batsman Samuel, who became the first Purton player to hit a half-century this summer against Hinton, and is hoping the rest of the team can follow suit sooner rather than later.

Whittaker said: “In that game, without Elijah, we would have definitely lost.

“He was superb. He showed why he’s one of the best players in the league and he really carried us through that run chase.

“It was a faultless knock and he showed real maturity and class just to bat through, even though everyone else around him was getting out.

“I know he was disappointed that he didn’t see it through once he got out, but Kurt Sealy managed to come in, hit a quickfire 17 and get us over the line.

“It was extremely tense at the end, but it was extremely important for us to get that win.”

Elsewhere, Callum Burnstone’s unbeaten century proved vital as Marshfield kept up their 100 per cent winning record with victory over Royal Wootton Bassett, who sit bottom without a win to their name.

Marshfield posted 247-7 and Darren Beasant’s Bassett could only muster 181-9 in reply.

Swindon saw off Potterne 2nd thanks to half-centuries from captain Marc Williamson (57), Alex Kill (57) and Adam Tucker (66).

The visitors reached 289-8 in their allotted overs, despite figures of 4-38 from Gedeon Charles, before Potterne were bowled out for 186 thanks to three wickets apiece for Chris Aubrey and Dean Williamson.

Devizes triumphed over Westbury by 15 runs courtesy of a strong batting display. They posted 210-7, while the hosts could only reach 195-9 in reply.

Tom Andrew top-scored with 57, while Thomas Grant was the pick of the Devizes bowlers with figures of 3-24 from his 10 overs.

Grant’s side held on to second place thanks to their close victory.

Meanwhile, Calne’s game against Warminster was called off due to a waterlogged pitch.