POOLE TOWN 286-7 (19pts) bt BERE REGIS 229-9 (8pts) by 57 runs

BERE Regis took eight points from a battling defeat at Poole Park in the Dorset Funeral Plan Premier Division.

The defeat sees Bere claim eight points despite the result and sees them fifth in the table.

Poole won the toss and elected to bat and saw a superb start, putting on 55 runs until Ben Edgell was trapped lbw by David Griffiths.

Badrul Alam came to the crease following the dismissal of Edgell and put in a superb innings, as he hit 86 runs.

Poole edged up to 78-1 with Jem Hai securing a half-century before he was stumped by Brian Keegan.

Poole then worked their way to 134-2 before Tom Robinson was caught by Bradley Moss.

Poole’s middle order were particularly effective as they pushed the score along with Bere struggling after taking their fourth wicket.

The home side did well to fight on despite losing three further wickets and set an intimidating score of 286-7.

After the break, Bere came to the crease and had a superb start, putting 100 runs on the board with Richard Payne and Matt King before the former was run out by Declan Quinn.

Robert Murphy then replaced him and helped the side push on to 161-1 before he was stumped by David Miller.

However, their momentum was dented as Bere fell to 173-6.

Time was of the essence however, with the run-rate starting to rise.

Rob Cole and Garry King helped push Bere above 200 before the latter was bowled by Robinson with Bere on 203.

The visitors kept fighting to a very good 229 before the 50 overs ran out and Poole claimed the victory.

After the match, Bere captain Rich Cole said: “It was hard work. They ran us ragged in the field, Poole Park is a big pitch and it just felt very hard to try and restrict them.

We did not help ourselves, some of our bowling was a little bit wayward and we struggled to really apply pressure. We managed to take wickets at crucial points.

“The way they were batting we could have been looking at something 320 and beyond.

“The problem was we just did not hit the accelerator button early enough, we left ourselves too much to do too late and so at the start of the game we were targeting a win. It is a road (referring to the pitch) we can go for this.

“About 30 overs in, it was questionable if we could still win because it was getting to 10 an over and so our target started looking at the 10 per cent margin.”

“We had to readjust our target and make sure we got the most out of the match that we could get. So we made sure about the 220 and everyone chipped in to make sure about it.”