CRANBORNE 74-2 (19pts) beat BEAMINSTER 73 (1pt) by eight wickets

BEAMINSTER had a day to forget after suffering a heavy defeat at Cranborne with a weakened team losing by eight wickets in County Division Two.

A number of senior players were once again unavailable as Beaminster struggled to field a full team.

With this in mind, Beaminster captain Ross Baker decided to bat first after winning the toss despite the damp conditions.

All of the top order struggled to bat as light rain started to fall shortly after the innings commenced meaning conditions deteriorated quickly. Opening bowler Phil Park (1-29) found movement off of the pitch while Marc Harris (4-24) unsettled the batsmen with an aggressive spell.

Only Lewis Keenan (42) managed double figures as he continued his good form striking a number of clean-hit boundaries.

Change slow bowler Charlie Arnold then recorded remarkable figures of 4-2 from just seven balls to mop up an inexperienced tail.

A target of 74 was unlikely to trouble the home team as they raced to 50 before change bowlers Ross Baker (1-8) and Will Moss (1-20) ensured respect to earn Beaminster a point.

Other opportunities to take further wickets were wasted as fielders failed to take catches giving Cranborne the chance to pass their target in the 10th over to record an emphatic victory.

Beaminster captain Ross Baker said: “We really struggled during the week to get a team together. There were a lot of people unavailable, it was probably our furthest journey for an away journey.

“We were severely weakened but we got a side out which was a good effort really. It was not ideal conditions for cricket really, it was wet and cold and pretty miserable.

“It was quite a tough toss to win because looking at their scores at home they have hit over 300 on several occasions so they are obviously a strong batting team and we were a weak side so I thought damage limitation we bat first.

“But it proved pretty difficult batting conditions and they skittled us out fairly comfortably.

“We have had a strange season really. We had some strong teams put out for the first quarter of the season, which got ourselves up the table but then it has fallen away and availability has dropped and we have struggled to get our regular experienced players.

“The youngsters have still played, they have been fantastic, they have made probably made up half of the team but the other half is where you need those senior players to help them along. and score the majority of the runs and take the wickets has not been there.”So it has been frustrating and we have lost our vice-captain through injury and that has been a big loss for the side. We just need to try and nod along and try and get to the end of the season and finish as high as we can and hopefully we will get our players back for next season.

When asked if his side are more looking towards the next season, Baker said: “I think so. We are going to start our preparations early and have a real think and get together and plan next season. We want to stay in this division, we are definitely good enough if we put our strongest team out but our priority is to get more consistency with that selection and get our best team out as much as we can.

This season we have got three games left and we will try and get one or two more victories. We should finish mid-table regardless of how well the last three games go so we are safe there is no doubt about that.”

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