CLUB captain Scott Mitchell reckons that title-chasing Trowbridge have ascended to the summit of the Wiltshire Division at the ‘perfect time’.

With Marlborough slipping up against Marshfield, Trowbridge moved to the top of the table with a comfortable eight-wicket win over second-from-bottom Malmesbury, leaving them five points ahead of Marlborough and seven ahead of third-placed Westbury.

Mitchell’s side have two more matches against teams in the bottom half of the table – Winsley and Great Bedwyn – this month and the club skipper sees no reason why Trowbridge can’t stay right where they are.

“Our game finished a little bit earlier than Marlborough’s, so we could check how they were getting on. It was really good for us that they lost,” said Mitchell.

“It’s good to be top of the table and I know that we’re only just past halfway in the season but I think we’ve got to the top at the perfect time.

“We’ve got a good run of fixtures until we get to August and hopefully we can pick up as many points as we can and stay there.”

Overseas star Andrea Agathangelou was at the heart of the Trowbridge efforts as they dispatched Malmesbury, ending the afternoon with fine figures of 5-14 after the visitors batted first.

George Royle (32) top-scored for Malmesbury but Mitchell claimed a further 3-30 as wickets tumbled at regular intervals, with the away side eventually dismissed for 157 in the 46th over.

Skipper Mike Reynolds was caught after hitting 20 from 12 deliveries before Agathangelou then took control with the bat, smacking away an unbeaten 102 from 75 balls.

He was well-supported by Sam Julyan (17*) as the hosts reached 159-2 early in the 24 overs.

Mitchell added: “We didn’t actually bowl and field that well and I think we could have restricted them to a smaller score.

“Malmesbury didn’t really show a lot of quality and they could have put a lot more pressure on us than they did.

“Aggers and Sam batted really well together again.

"I know that Aggers got the runs but when he’s out there with Sam, they look really good together.”

Meanwhile, third-placed Westbury kept their charge on-track with a 147-run thrashing of visitors Devizes.

Opener Richard Mills top scored for Westbury as they could only must a below-par 216-6 off their 50 overs. John Dunford took 3-33 with the ball.

Devizes may have thought they had a chance of chasing down that target but their reply was over before it had really began, with skipper Alex Senneck, Lydon Gibbons and Richard Oakley claiming three wickets apiece skittle them all out for 69.

Joe Wookey top-scored with 22, with number 10 Harry Flack the only other player to reach double figures.

Westbury make the trip to Purton this weekend.

Meanwhile, Winsley were blown away by Purton skipper Aaron Lee as he claimed figures of 6-24 to inflict a nine-wicket defeat on Kevin Hendy’s men.

At one stage, Winsley were 34-7 before the efforts of James Lloyd (21) did help them muster a total of 74.

However, that was never going to be enough to defend and, while, Tom Walker claimed the sole wicket of Neil Little as Purton reached their victory target in the 12th over.