Dorchester SECONDS 149 (5pts) lost to POOLE TOWN SECONDS 150-4 (20pts)

DORCHESTER Seconds were sentenced to relegation after losing their survival shoot-out at Poole Town Seconds.

Needing to overturn a 14-point deficit in the final-day clash, the county town side were up against it from the start.

And unfortunately they were unable to dig themselves out of trouble as the home side prevailed by six wickets to maintain their place in Dorset League Division Two.

Dorchester skipper Stuart Beasley though, whose side will join neighbours Weymouth in Division Three, is confident his charges will bounce back from the disappointment.

He said: “After the previous week’s game against Weymouth was cancelled after tea we knew that we had a mountain to climb with Poole being 14 points ahead of us.

“I won the toss and batted on a half-decent track and with the players that we finally managed to get together I felt confident that we would set a decent score.

“But our innings started badly when Jon Desborough (0) went on the second ball.

“This brought Pete Diffey (11) to the crease alongside Simon Joslin (38). Both were going well until Pete fished for one outside off-stump and edged it through to the keeper. Many of us came and went with some getting ourselves out, myself included. Pete Phillips was the only one to get a score behind Simon and being all out for 149 we knew that it was all over.

“If we had reached 150 we could have tied on points with Poole if we had beaten them and bowled them out for less than 88. This was not to be but we still had pride to play for when we went out to field.

“Myself (1-16) and Dan Morris (1-23) opened the bowling and after 12 overs they were 19-1. I then brought the spin on and their batsmen seemed to like that very much, but with limited bowlers I had little other option.

“Myself, Dan, Pete Phillips (1-38) and Rhys Cole (1-29) all took a wicket apiece but they passed our total in the 33rd over.

“I would just like to say a big thank you to the team. Although we have gone down they have still worked really hard all season and never gave up. They have also been unlucky on occasions.

“We will come back next season and do our best to get back up to Division Two again.

“Also, thanks go to Martyn Richards, Simon Joslin and Tony Foot, for the help and advice they have given me this season, as well as umpire John Ricketts and scorer Andy Harris.”