BARTON picked up a valuable win in their efforts to stay away from the A Division basement when they beat promotion hopefuls Budleigh Salterton by two wickets.

Budleigh totted up 234 for nine in 50 overs – openers Matt Junk and Eliot Rice leading the way with a stand of 142.

Barton refused to give up even when this went against them and squeezed over the line with five balls to spare – Adam Last and Andy McVeigh the men of the moment with an eighth-wicket stand of 59.

Paignton did Barton a favour by beating Hatherleigh, who drop into the bottom two.

Plympton[‘s surprise win over Lewdown, who were second, moved them out of the bottom two.

Barton are fourth from bottom, seven points clear of the relegation places, with four games to go, starting with Paignton at Queens Park this Saturday.

Barton are not out of trouble yet, but are moving in the right direction.

“It was a much-needed win for us which keeps our heads above water for one more week,” said skipper Adam Parker.

“Budleigh got off to a really good start with the bat and, historically, we would have buckled.

“We showed some fight and did really well to restrict them to 234, which was still a good score.

“Our batters showed some grit and determination to knock the runs off.

“All in all a superb team effort, which will hopefully be a catalyst for some good performances over the coming weeks.”

Budleigh were in a strong position with 20 overs to go as Junk (88) and Rice (50) had taken them to 142 for two.

Parker broke the stand when he had Junk lbw then Jamie Peters accounted for Rice in the next over.

With wickets in hand Budleigh would have been looking to up the tempo in the time left, but they slowed against a largely tidy bowling effort.

Matt Lipton (2-19) and Adam Last  (0-22) got some tap in short spells, but most of thee bowling was around four an over.

Sam Richardson (20) and Ben Phillips (20) had the only scores of note for Budleigh.

Alex Hunt and Lipton were early casualties when Barton batted, but Tom Drake (50) and Jaryd Seiffert (36) knocked off 73 of the target.

Parker (25) and Stuart Bowker (24) got Barton up to 173 for seven with 12 overs to go to put the game in the balance.

Last (37) and McVeigh got Barton within two runs of victory. McVeigh (26no) hit Budleigh skipper Joel Murphy for a boundary to win the game with four balls to spare.

Former Devon bowlers Trevor Anning (1-36) and Andy Procter (0-36) were cheap to operate. Junk had three Barton wickets for 37 runs in 10 overs.