ASTON-ON-TRENT and Rolls-Royce look like winning the race for the top two places in the Marston's Derbyshire County League.

And the Evening Telegraph can reveal this week that both also look like winning the race to have their grounds up to the required standards to earn promotion to the Beechwood Derbyshire Premier League.

As is common at this time of year, speculation was becoming rife about whether a team in the Premier League's bottom two would be reprieved because the facilities of one of the successful Division One sides were not good enough.

Given the excellent facilities at the Rolls-Royce sports ground, Aston seemed the likeliest to miss out.

But all Division One clubs are circulated with a letter from the leagues telling them what will be required to get their grounds up to scratch – and, at Aston, they realised it was possible to get all of the work done in time.

Earlier this season, they were a long way short.

But when the leagues' grounds committee visited the Shardlow Road ground last week, they acknowledged a transformation had taken place.

“In May, we had a report from a match umpire that all was not as it should be,” said Mark Hallows, who led the committee delegation.

“But, last week, the ground was like a new pin – someone has worked very hard indeed to put things right and we were able to confirm that the ground now has an A+ rating.”

That is the grading required for the Premier League and is a distinct notch up from the Grade A facilities available at many grounds.

The Aston club, rescued from extinction a few years ago by an influx of Asian players, mostly from the Normanton area, have attracted controversy in the past, falling foul of the league's disciplinary committee.

But director of cricket Shakeel Aslam first weeded out the unruly elements in the side and then set himself the task of overseeing the improvement in facilities.

“We have worked tirelessly to address the issues and make further improvements, despite limited resources,” said Aslam.

“We have managed to meet the required criteria for promotion and it's a tremendous achievement when you consider there are only 275 cricket clubs with the required facilities playing in Premier Leagues throughout Britain, out of a total of 8,500 clubs.

“This was my first assignment as director of cricket for Aston and I'm very pleased and relieved that it's gone well.”

Rolls-Royce, meanwhile, were asked to address a problem with regular mowing of the outfield at their Moor Lane ground earlier in the season but, otherwise, have the required facilities.

Both clubs have been told – as are those currently in the Premier League – that the facilities must pass muster not only at the time of the inspections but at the end of the season and the start of the next as well.

Each recorded 27-point wins on Saturday, so Aston retained an 11-point lead over Royces, who have a game in hand.

The two meet in a potential title-decider at Rolls-Royce on Saturday, September 6.