MARTINSTOWN captain Ed Nichols respects the quality of opponents Bere Regis ahead of their Dorset Funeral Plan Premier League derby at Lower Ashton Farm tomorrow (1pm).

Nichols’ men were bowled out for 159 in the reverse fixture, but managed to dismiss Bere for 143 in claiming their first derby victory of the season in late May.

With the two sides separated by just two positions and 15 points, Martinstown occupying fourth, Nichols spoke of a “mutual respect” for Bere on their first season in the Premier League.

He told Echosport: “They’re quite a tough side to beat. Their results have been really, really good. They’ve done really well and performed really consistently.

“We had a good game against them earlier in the year. They’re just below us in the table and they’re playing for fourth place. Contextually it’s quite an important game and we’re looking forward to it.”

Nichols feels the occasion will fall in line with previous meetings in avoiding an acrimonious slant.

“We’ve played a lot against them in the evening league and they’re a nice bunch of guys.

“Matt King and Rob Murphy have had really good seasons – there’s that mutual respect. I’m sure it will be quite well competed,” he added.

Martinstown will make four changes, with Monty Payne, George Pope, Jamie Stewart and Nathan McNab omitted for Lee House, Sam Kershaw, Liam Banfield and one of Chris Read or Mike Kennedy-Barnard, the former nursing a hamstring strain.

Meanwhile, Bere skipper Rich Cole is aiming to “rectify” his side’s previous defeat to Martinstown and “make honours even”.

He said: “Where we are, we want to make sure we’re really competing and pushing ourselves as best as we can. From what I’ve heard and seen in terms of fixtures they’ve got a good wicket.

“They’ve obviously got something that’s working well for them. We came quite close to them at ours and we want to rectify that and make honours even.”

This week, Bere bring in all-rounders Dean Rogerson and Rich Payne, a move Cole hopes will strengthen his team’s batting after a middle order collapse against rivals Dorchester last time out.

He said: “Hopefully that will improve our batting as we struggled last week to really push on from a solid foundation. As always we’ve got a team of all rounders so I’ve got loads of bowling options.

“We were joint on points with them last week so we want to get in that position of top of the rest so that we can hopefully close that gap.”

Martinstown (from): Nichols, House, S Williams, T Pope, Andrews, Banfield, Kershaw, Maltby, Chase, Hill, Camp, Read, Kennedy-Barnard

Bere Regis (from): M King, Payne, Rob Cole, Murphy, Rogerson, Rich Cole, Goodhew, G King, Griffiths, Brown, Keegan, Walbridge, Swann

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