RAIN may have swept across the county on Saturday but Trowbridge made the most of the few bright spells of weather that came their way to close the gap on top spot.

With leaders Westbury & District and second-placed Marshfield having their fixtures abandoned and cancelled respectively, Trowbridge were able to capitalise with a nine-wicket win over bottom-of-the-table Malmesbury and move within 17 points of the summit.

Earlier downpours saw the match reduced to 23 overs per side but once the skies cleared, Trowbridge knew they would have their work cut out to get a positive result and swiftly hit their straps to restrict the visitors to 79-8.

Mike Reynolds’ men then made short work of their run chase, easing to victory in the ninth over of the reply to finish on 80-1.

“A lot of credit needs to go to the umpires, they did a tremendous job in allowing us to get a game on,” said skipper Reynolds, whose side are in third place with two games to go.

“There was a lot of bad weather around and we were fortunate that the rain seemed to fall quite kindly for us and it didn’t hurt us too badly.

“We played really well and when the result was around the corner we made sure we got over the line before the rain came back again.

“All the teams near the top will be watching out for each other, we have just got to keep winning and hope that the teams at the top lose a game.

“There is still a slim chance of us going up but we will just have to keep on playing well and see what happens.”

Brendon Louw led an inspired Trowbridge bowling effort at the County Ground, taking 3-4 off five overs as Malmesbury struggled to make an impact, with George Royal (35) and Richard Gaunt the only batsmen to reach double figures.

With such a low total to chase, the home side did not hang around, although they did have to survive one minor setback as John Carroll was dismissed off the second ball of the innings.

That turned out to be the only wicket to fall as skipper Reynolds (52 not out) and Louw (27 not out) saw Trowbridge past the winning post with aplomb.

Reynolds added: “It was a strange approach from them as the wicket didn’t look too bad. Although it was a reduced game they didn’t really look to attack but then again, we bowled really well.

“To restrict them to below 80 was lovely, I thought they were going to score 100 plus but we managed to contain them.

“To get as many wickets as we did was excellent and then we were able to top it off with our batting too. Myself and Brendan just played to our strengths and when we got in a position to win, we made sure we were able to finish it off.”