SOUTH WILTS could be crowned ECB Southern Electric Premier League champions if they beat Havant at Lower Bemerton on Saturday.

With three matches remaining - two of which are against Havant and BAT Sports - they stay 43 points ahead, having moved another step nearer the title with a 159-run win over bottom club Old Tauntonians & Romsey.

"In the end, it was very comfortable," reflected skipper Rob Wade. "But for the first hour or more I thought we were going to come badly unstuck."

Wade had good reason to worry, with Jason Laney, Jamie Glasson, teenager Eddie Abel and himself all back in the pavilion and just 51 runs on the board.

One-time South Wilts colt Henry Lamb, who finished with a season's best 4-48, and New Zealander Scott Shirley (2-20) did the damage.

But championship winning sides don't just lay down and die.

For the second consecutive week, they hit back hard - with Dorset's Tim Lamb and Jon Chandler coming together in the 16th over and turning the match on its head.

In less than two hours, they added a Premier League record 185 for the fifth wicket - Lamb hitting two sixes and 17 fours in a blistering 145 and Chandler eight boundaries in a thoroughly supportive 73.

Spin duo Phil Wyatt (89 runs off ten overs) and Jonathon Dowling (50 off five) took the brunt of the run storm.

They saw South Wilts soar from a worrying 51-4 towards an unassailable 299-7.

Old Tauntonians & Romsey, spirits still high from the previous week's win over Andover, lost opening pair Jody Brown and Paul Longland cheaply but rallied to 87-2 through Shirley (38) and Wayne Lockey (28) before teenager left-arm spinner James Hayward (3-33) got both batsmen.

Laney, who had experienced a quiet afternoon, stamped his mark on proceedings - with the ball!

Bowling his occasional off-spin, Laney ripped out five of the last six OTs wickets to fall, finishing with 5-31 as the Romsey club folded to 140 all out.

His last two victims were stumpings by Tim Lamb.