PURTON’S inconsistent season reached one of its highest ebbs, as captain Elliot Hill struck an unbeaten 96 in a comfortable seven-wicket victory at Winsley.

Hill’s knock included 16 boundaries and a six from 86 balls, as he lead his team home with almost five overs to spare.

Earlier, having lost the toss, it looked like it could have been a very different story for the skipper and his charges, as Charlie Holton and Jeremy Smith shared an opening stand of 110 before Smith played on to Akki Gomel.

Once the second Winsley wicket fell, at 171, however, the hosts found it hard to finish the innings with a flourish and disciplined spin bowling from Tom Bowler, Gomel and Deepak Ramani, who shared seven wickets between them, restricted Winsley to 238 all out.

In reply, both Gomel and Bowler made it into the 40s, while Hill anchored the innings to complete a successful afternoon’s work for Purton.

Reflecting on the game, Hill said: “They won the toss, chose to bat and let us roam in the field for 45 overs on a totally flat deck. We were pretty powerless to stop their opening partnership. We got a bit of luck when the overseas chopped onto his stumps off Akki and perhaps on reflection Charlie went a bit too hard a bit too early.

“When he was dismissed they probably ended up 40 or 50 below par on a flat deck with a lightning quick outfield. We knocked them off reasonably comfortably, which was pleasing.

“We’ve been asked to chase 230 or 240 on a few flat decks where you think we should be getting those and got ourselves in a lot of trouble. To knock it off inside 41 overs is a good team effort.

“When we’re on our game, there are very few sides, if any, who can live with us.

“Unfortunately we struggle to do it week in, week out and that is frustrating.

“If we can find reasons behind the inconsistencies then we’ll have a good chance of making it up the league.

“It was a great result and now we’ve got to try to back it up for the rest of the season if we want to finish higher up the league than we’re currently sitting.”