HAMWORTHY REC 225 (20pts) beat WEYMOUTH 205 (13pts) by 20 runs

WEYMOUTH’S lengthy wait for a win at Redlands continued on Saturday as they fell to a 20-run loss against Hamworthy Recreation.

Despite some cloud overhead, the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first against a Weymouth side that had won just once so far this season.

And it was Hamworthy’s Toby Avery who continues his impressive form at the top of the order to help his side post a total.

After an unbeaten 69 the previous week, he made 73 against the Seasiders before he was caught by Kieron Womble off the bowling of Graham Puckett, who went on to claim five wickets in the innings.

Sam Stroud was the last man standing for the away side, finishing 47 not out having run out of partners after 39 overs, as Hamworthy posted a competitive score of 225.

In reply, Weymouth’s top three of Dave Blackman, Womble and Tom England all fell relatively cheaply before Simon Browne and Paul Payne boosted the Weymouth total in the middle order with a stand of 74 and gave the hosts a sniff of chasing down their victory target.

But when Payne was dismissed for 47 caught and bowled by Sean Mulley, the partnership was broken and wickets began to tumble once more.

Browne passed 50 but his effort was then thwarted by a horrible delivery which shot low off the pitch and had him bowled for 58.

Eventually, Weymouth were bowled out for 205 with Avery backing up his strong day with the bat to claim five wickets with the ball for just 36 runs, as the Seasiders were left to ponder what went wrong once again.

Reacting after the contest, skipper Browne told Echosport: “To be really honest we are just a team of mainly old men that give 20 or 30 runs too many in the field and it cost us on Saturday as well as the other week.

“That’s no criticism to any of the guys, it’s just indicative of where the club is at the moment.”

He added: “If I had stayed to the end I would have fancied myself to get the runs.

“I said to Paul Payne when we were out there, it looked like evening league when we needed around 110 off 17 overs, ‘if we stay here we will win it’.

“It (the ball that got him out) was a half-tracker I was ready to put it into the houses and it just shot along the floor.

“We are just coming up short at the moment.”