WEYMOUTH 105 (3pts) lost to CERNE VALLEY 108-5 (20pts) by five wickets

WEYMOUTH endured another poor day with the bat as Cerne Valley cruised to a maximum-point victory at Redlands in County Division One.

Batting first after winning the toss, the hosts were reduced to 34-3 as Tony Quayle (9), Dean Janaway (0) and skipper Simon Browne (7) all edged behind to Jim Ryall.

From there, Weymouth doubled their score for the loss of five more wickets as another nightmare innings looked likely at 69-8.

But teenager Dom Webb (32no) displayed his talent with a mixture of boundaries and gritty defensive play to nudge his side into triple figures, closing on 105 all out.

Yet Cerne were in no difficulty during their chase, easily surpassing 105 despite spirited spells from off-spinners John Ryan (4-36) and Harry Mitchell (1-34).

Earlier, Cerne’s opening bowlers Pearce Mercer (2-23) and Mark Whitmarsh (2-22) extracted seam and swing movement with Mercer removing Browne and Dave Blackman (7), and Whitmarsh accounting for Quayle and Janaway.

Off-spinner Mike Collinge (3-13) then quickly ousted Weymouth’s lower order but could not get rid of Webb, whose excellent innings included six fours.

A total of 105 always looked in peril as Nick Wardlaw (26) and Ryall (14) put on 47 for the first wicket, comfortably seeing off Weymouth’s Neil Walton (0-20) and Graham Puckett (0-17) until Ryall became the first of four victims for Ryan.

Wardlaw soon followed to a leg-before decision before Mitchell dismissed Simon Walsh (13) to leave Cerne on 73-3.

Solid hitting from Mercer (22) brought Cerne to the cusp of victory, which they duly completed when Simon Green (11no) hit Ryan down the ground for four.

Speaking to Echosport after the game, Browne felt his side were “staring down the barrel” after losing three early wickets.

He said: “The first three wickets that went down were down to their good bowling.

"We were staring down the barrel and a couple of wickets given away after that meant we were struggling to get a total.

“Having said that, had we got to 150 we could have made a game of it, but as I’ve said before if you don’t score enough runs you’re not likely to win those games.”

Reflecting on Webb’s performance, Browne hoped his innings would be a “seminal moment” for the promising all-rounder.

“Dom batted really well for his 30 and I hope that’s now a seminal moment, in that he understands now what you’ve got to do to play regularly for the first team but also to score runs,” he said.