HAMWORTHY RECREATION SECONDS 60 (0pts) lost to CHARLTON DOWN 62-1 (20pts) by 9 wickets

CHARLTON Down continued their impressive unbeaten run and extended it to 11 matches with an emphatic nine-wicket victory over an experienced Hamworthy side.

Kim Park was the star for the hosts, spinning his way to a fifer for 12 haul off just 5.3 overs.

Hamworthy’s experienced batting line-up found run scoring difficult against the miserly bowling brothers of Matt and Dan Stevens.

Dan Stevens was particularly stingy conceding only seven runs from seven overs and picking up two wickets.

Stevens was almost unplayable at times as each Hamworthy batsman were unable to get a bat on the moving ball of Stevens.

After 14 overs, Hamworthy had only scored 24 runs for the loss of both openers Tom Wood, Mike Fisher and Gordon Frazier.

A double bowling change saw James Pretty (1-20) bowl Greg Regan for three with the score on 28-4 and then the controlled spin of Park struck five times in as many overs, together with a run-out saw Hamworthy collapse to 60 all out in only 25.3 overs.

Park bowled with great control, his line and length forced the Hamworthy batsmen into some poor shot selection and picked up another five-wicket haul for the season.

Charlton Down passed the 2,000-run mark for the season and also over the 100 wickets for the season so far.

The home side’s openers were soon on the back foot with the pace of Gerard Benfield having them in all sorts of problems.

Wimborne footballer, Benfield is by far the quickest bowler to play at the Herrison Oval for

some time, extracting good bounce which was passing by the chins of Jae Miller and Jack Eveleigh.

At the other end, Dorset Over-50s’ bowler Mike Fisher extracted good movement and had Jack Eveleigh leg before wicket with the score on 7-1.

Benfield was unlucky not to have picked up two or three wickets as the inside and outside edges of Miller and Voss raised to the boundary.

However, Miller and Nick Voss batted well to see Charlton to victory in only the 15th over to secure the second double of an already amazing season.