PARLEY 142 (17pts) beat WEYMOUTH 124 (6pts) by 18 runs

LAURIE ‘Cube’ Whyte reckons his side only had themselves to blame at Dean Park on Saturday after failing to complete the job with the bat against Dorset Premier League high-fliers Parley.

Weymouth went into the game off the back of two consecutive victories and at tea it looked like a hat-trick was on the cards after the 2010 title winners were dismissed for just 142.

Dave Trotter and Dan Hutchens both took three wickets apiece but unfortunately the Seasiders’ batting line-up failed to fire as their reply fell agonisingly short.

Just 18 runs separated the two sides when the last Seasider fell and Whyte admitted afterwards it felt like a huge opportunity missed.

He told Echosport: “It was more disappointing than anything else.

“We have really come into form with our bowling and fielding of late but on Saturday we let ourselves down with the bat.

“To lose the match after dismissing them for just 142 was frustrating enough, but the fact we only came away with six points having run them so close just made it even harder to take.”

Analysing the game, Whyte added: “We turned up and unfortunately someone had taken a stump to the pitch we were supposed to play on, so we moved to another one instead that had been prepared for an over-50s game the next day.

“A quick clip and a roll and we were set to go, and on winning the toss we put them in thinking the pitch might do something.

“To be honest though, it didn’t do a lot but we still got two early breakthroughs and should have had a third when we dropped their number three twice in two balls, which proved extremely costly with him going on to knock 54 off 49 balls.

“However, despite that, we still bowled well and in the end we got them for just 142, which was a fantastic effort considering the strength of their line-up.

“Dean Janaway and Jim Ryall then got us off to a decent start and looked to be going well but once that opening partnership was broken we began to lose wickets at regular intervals.

“We then got bogged down in the middle overs with the run rate rising from just under three to just over four in the last 15 overs and Parley took advantage with some good bowling and fielding.

“We just never really got going and unfortunately in the end we just threw it away.”

Trotter’s (3-25) excellent form continued with the removal of both Sam Collins and Mark Morley for ducks but the tide looked like it might turn when Tom Jacques (54) rode his luck on the way to a quickfire half-century.

However when he was eventually caught by Paul Payne off the bowling of Hutchens (3-29), Parley were back under pressure on 64-4, and although Kieran Price (20), Roshan Embalagama (14) and Matt Stickland (18) all put up resistance it was not enough to stop their side falling eight runs shy of 150.

A couple of wickets from Simon Browne (2-18) and a superb spell from Whyte (1-14 from 10 overs) completed the job for Weymouth and at 29-0 in reply, it appeared the visitors were in full command.

However, when Ryall found the hands of Collins the Seasiders then went on to lose four wickets for just 33 runs as Sam Thomson (3-11 from 10 overs) turned up the pressure.

Out of the top four, only Janaway (19) showed any real form and it was left to Tom England (28) to try and shift the momentum back in his side’s favour.

The middle-order batsman dug in and spent just over an hour at the crease but the increasing run rate soon took its toll with Naik (4-27) eventually cleaning up his stumps to reduce the visitors to 89-6.

Browne (12) and Hutchens (11) then went on to show heart in the tail but eventually their rearguard action faltered with Naik mopping things up to leave the visitors agonising over what just might have been.