WEYMOUTH 148 (4pts) lost to MARTINSTOWN 152-4 (20pts) by 6 wickets

BOTTOM club Weymouth will have to wait a little longer to record their first win of the season, as Martinstown completed a comfortable triumph at Redlands.

Having ticked along relatively well batting first on their own turf, the Seasiders suffered a dramatic collapse, going from 131-4 to 148 all out.

Matt Camp and Liam Banfield were the pick of the Martinstown attack, claiming six wickets between them at a cost of just 36 runs to put the Lower Ashton Farm side in the box seat at the interval.

And although Weymouth made a good fist of putting pressure on captain Ed Nichols’ men, reducing them to 48-4 at one stage, Dave Herbert (59no) and Banfield (39no) saw the visitors over the line with an unbeaten century partnership.

“It was nervy at 48-4," the Martinstown skipper told Echosport. "There were maybe some nerves about chasing as we haven’t managed to chase scores down in the last couple of weeks.

“But it was a brilliant partnership at the end. We balanced attack and defence and made it looked comfortable, and we showed patience to get over the line.

“It’s nice to keep that points gap and it's good for our confidence that we got back to winning again.”

Nichols also hailed the efforts of Camp and Banfield with the ball, saying: “Matt went for four runs off the bat in 10 overs. There were 11 wides which he was a bit cross about but that’s unbelievable bowling.

“Liam's 10 overs against some experienced players really put the pressure on as well."

Weymouth have now recorded six straight losses this term, only accumulating 26 league points in the process.

Seasiders skipper Kieron Womble added: “Although we weren’t ticking along I was quite happy with the base we had, but then we massively collapsed.

“We should have got to 180 or 190 at least and then we could have made a game of it. When you make around 140 on that pitch you know you have to force mistakes and they just eased home.

“We bowled really well up top but let one or two get away with boundary balls. Before you know it, each batsman is on 50-odd and well set.

“We have had a lot of teams around 40-4 and we just can’t break the key partnerships.”