VENTNOR remain on course to win Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 after a 49-run win over Alton - but Hursley Park are breathing down their necks, just two points behind in the title race.

The pair have three matches left - Ventnor travelling to Calmore Sports and Easton & Martyr Worthy before hosting Gosport Borough, and Hursley visiting Lymington and Burridge either side of entertaining St Cross Symondians.

Ventnor's win over Alton would arguably have been much tighter but for a knee injury sustained by New Zealander Ben Jansen, who was leading a spirited comeback when he collapsed at the crease setting off for a run.

Alton, rallying from 88-6 in response to Ventnor's 209-9, had recovered to 130-6 at the time, with Jansen 54 not out.

"That was the key moment," claimed disappointed Alton skipper Julian Ballinger.

"We still had a lot to do, but we'd added almost 50 and our partnership had us up with the required run rate."

When Ballinger (29) was bowled, Alton's hopes of winning - and continuing to feature in the promotion race - disappeared and they were all out for 161.

"I felt we needed to take 20 runs off one over and really had to have a dart. It didn't come off, though," Ballinger said.

Alton certainly made their presence felt in the sun-drenched Steephill bowl, having Ventnor struggling at 8-2 and later 65-4 until left-hander Neil Westhorpe turned proceedings around.

The sea mist which swirled around the ground in the early stages - and almost had umpires Alan Bundy and Steve Malone calling for orange flares - certainly made the early batting difficult.

John Halfacre (2-31) trapped Josh Nelson and Martin Blackman leg before with consecutive balls and, when Ballinger (3-42) removed a careless Ian Hills and Lee Brown, Alton were in the driving seat.

But Westhorpe's timely 82, which contained two sixes and six boundaries, established a superiority Ventnor were to hold.

With Andy White (19), Mark Fletcher (26) and Rob Archer (20) batting around him, Westhorpe guided the table-topping Islanders to a winning 209-9.

Teenage rock hopeful Rob Snell (3-42) was on a hat-trick off the first three balls of Alton's reply.

He nipped one back and clean bowled Bruce Oliphant and then trapped Michael Heffernan leg before.

Richie Morgan (26) survived the hat-trick ball and rallied Alton's cause for a while.

But New Zealander Nelson struck two more blows and, before the innings had reached its halfway point, Alton were facing defeat at 88-6.

Jansen's battling half-century threatened to undo Ventnor's hard work, but when the Kiwi's knee gave way at 130-6, the game was up for Alton, who slipped to 161 all out - and out of the promotion frame.

But, with only two points separating the top two, the Division 2 championship race is set to go to the wire.

Openers Adrian Small and Paul Marks powered Hursley Park to a ten-wicket win over Calmore Sports, who had won their five previous games.

The pair shared an unbroken 183-run stand - Small (99) hitting 14 fours but just missing his first century of the season, while Marks struck 72 not out, including a six and eight fours.

The young Calmore side struggled to make any real impression throughout, with Stuart Wilson (3-39) and Martin Taylor (3-42) dictating the terms.

Calmore's first seven batsmen all made starts, but only Pete Clark (45) progressed after spinner Andy Marks (2-42) had struck key blows in removing James Hibberd and Paul Cass.

Yet Hursley allowed a precious point to slip through their fingers by not taking all ten Calmore wickets.

They looked set for a five-bonus-point 'full house' when Calmore dipped to 168-9 - but last pair Paul Hurst and Darren Challis lifted the total to 179-9.