MARTINSTOWN 187 (6pts) lost to PARLEY 190-6 (20pts) by 4 wickets

MARTINSTOWN gave Parley a real scare in their Dorset Premier League clash at Dean Park before Dom Clutterbuck, George Wilson and Tom Barber guided the hosts to victory by four wickets.

Parley were five men down for around 100 when Clutterbuck (35) and Wilson (35 not out) steadied the ship before Barber (26 not out) joined the latter at the crease to get the home side over the line.

The visitors had earlier been limited to 187, with several players making starts only to miss out on a really big score.

However, given that they too were five wickets down having just passed the century mark, Nichols was happy to take the total his charges eventually managed.

Nichols (27), Henry Lewis (14) and George Pope (19) got the away side off to a decent start, but David Scott’s 4-36 kept them in check and Steve Gerety and Lee House both went cheaply.

Luckily for Martinstown, Ryan Chase and Tom Nicholls stood strong and their scores of 23 and 36 gave the innings a much-needed boost.

All of Parley’s bowlers bar Clutterbuck took at least one wicket, although the home attack gave away 45 in extras.

After Chris Read removed Scott early in the Parley reply, the hosts rebuilt through Max Trueman (29) and Jamie Price (24).

That was until Chase bowled Trueman and Read (4-33) accounted for Price, Owen Morris and Ollie Shrubsole.

But when Read had finished his allotted overs Martinstown didn’t have the firepower to prevent Clutterbuck, Wilson and Barber taking the game away from them.

Giving his views on the match to Echosport, Nichols said: “We won the toss on an interesting wicket, one that I didn’t think was going to change much during the day.

“We got off to a good start but then had a collapse in the middle order which took the wind out of our sails.

“Ryan and Tom did really well to rebuild and having been around 100-6 at one stage I would have taken 187.”

On Parley’s innings, he added: “We started really poorly with the ball and they got off to a flyer in the first 10 overs.

“Chris got a few quick wickets and I thought we had a chance when they were five down.

“Then those three lads in the middle order built a couple of good partnerships and took the game away from us.

“We would have wanted to score more but we could have defended our total.

“We just lacked that extra bowler to get a couple of wickets once Chris had finished.”