PAIGNTON will be playing for their Premier Division survival when they meet Exeter at Queens Park on Saturday.

Bottom side Plymouth have it all to do to dodge the drop as they are 12 points adrift going into the last round of games.

Unless Plymouth beat Sidmouth it’s A Division cricket for them next season – and even a win might not been enough to save them.

The five teams immediately above Plymouth are only separated by eight points. In theory any one of them could be dragged down, although in practice there is one game that matters more than most.

Paignton (170pts) are one off the bottom and Exeter (171pts) are directly above them.

An Exeter win sends Paignton down and, unless Plymouth do something remarkable against Sidmouth, the others in the frame are safe.

Even if Sidmouth do win they need favourable results elsewhere to stay up.

Torquay and North Devon are both in relegation orbit and meet in one of the other games. Four points are enough for North Devon; Torquay need nine.

Paignton’s prospects weren’t helped by an eight-wicket defeat in the basement battle with Torquay last time out.

Mitch Pugh (5-33) and Dan Wightman (4-14) shot out Paignton for 106.

Pugh (20), Cody Gertze (38) and George Allen (24no) needed less than 22 overs to polish off the target.

Beaten captain Richard Ashworth said Torquay bowled Paignton out of the game.

“They had the ball swinging big for the whole innings,” said Ashworth.

“I haven't seen the ball swing like that all season - and we just weren't up to it.

“We were going to need a bit of luck with the ball early on to put pressure on them, but didn't get any.

“Torquay got the runs quite comfortably.

“George Yates got us a couple of wickets, but by then the game was almost done.”

Torquay captain Justin Yau can see light at the end of the tunnel now in the scrap to stay up.

Beating Paignton was only part of the story. Defeats for Exeter, Plymouth, Heathcoat and North Devon all improved Torquay’s prospects.

“It was a huge win - and we were lucky that all the results went our way,” said Yau.

“It's put us in a great position to maintain our Premiership status and hopefully we can complete the job at North Devon.

“The boys played brilliantly and we knew we had a tough job to turn around a 14-point deficit

“We bowled brilliantly and batted sensibly to gain maximum points.

“It has been a tough season but hopefully we can gain enough points in our final fixture to pull off a great escape.”