PORTLAND RED TRIANGLE 213ao (7pts) lost to CATTISTOCK (20pts) by six wickets

JON Legg hit 90 runs to fire Cattistock to a six-wicket victory over Portland Red Triangle in a dramatic top of the table clash in County Division One.

Legg’s 90 saw Cattistock patiently chase down a solid 214-run target set by Portland, while the match was somewhat overshadowed by an alleged elbow on Portland captain Matt Randell when shaking hands after the contest had ended.

There had earlier been complaints about the home side’s sledging from Cattistock batsmen when sat beside the pavilion during the away team’s innings.

Portland batted first, but got off to the worst possible start, when opener Ray Emery (0) was dismissed by Cattistock captain Bradley Damen (4-37) with no runs on the board.

Ollie Whisker (17) and Callan Laws (30) laid a foundation for the home side however, firing them up to 47, before the former was caught and bowled by Martin Langford (1-24).

Laws went 15 runs later, with the home side seemingly stuttering.

Yet Randall (66) and Chris Theakstone (21) seemed to provide one of the very many twists in the excellent contest.

The partnership boosted the home side up to 139-3 before Theakstone was removed by Damen.

The Cattistock skipper had an impressive game with the ball, taking four wickets, including that of his opposite number Randell, with Portland now 160-5.

From here, wickets fell regularly, as the Cattistock bowlers took wickets at a regular intervals to halt Portland’s advance at 213 all out.

Cattistock’s turn with the bat began in identical fashion to the home side’s, with opener Jason Bradley (0) dismissed with no runs on the board from a Simon Proffitt (1-31) delivery.

Yet that had the effect of bringing Legg into the fray, and his 90 runs was decisive in securing victory for his team.

Billy Walbridge (12) was the next to go, again similarly to Portland’s innings, he fell when he was brilliantly caught by a flying Tim Forshaw from a Joe Adkins (1-20) delivery, with his side on 42.

Legg’s 12 boundaries were well-timed, materialising when his side seemed to be dropping below the run rate.

Liam Toohill’s 34 proved part of a profitable partnership, with Cattistock up to 127 before he was bowled by Matt Barrett (1-48).

The next moment of contention came with the dismissal of Ben Golledge (16), with the batsman evidently frustrated with Portland’s approach after his dismissal.

From here however, Steven Tucker (22) and Legg pushed Cattistock to the six-wicket victory.

With the players coming off the pitch, Portland captain Randell was incensed by an alleged elbow on him by a Cattistock player during the post-match handshakes, with Randell and Damen discussing the incident with the umpire after the game.

After the match, Cattistock captain Damen told Echosport: “It was alright. We bowled really well at the start, they did not really get off to a very good start, a couple of early wickets went down.”They had a good few middle overs, where they were in the game a lot, thinking they were going to hit 280, 300, but we managed to pin them down and get crucial wickets.

“Jon Legg – outstanding – and he hurt himself earlier fielding.

“It was a match-winning innings really, there were people around him batting well, Liam (Toohill) batted well, Billy batted well. Tucker at the end showed that he could bring it home, and then Ben in the middle order.”

When asked about the fiery nature of the match, Damen replied: “It normally is with us, it always is. For years now it has always been us and Portland top two, so it is normally fiery but it is not normally as bad as that.”

Randell said: “It is always a fiery game, the way I see it is when you are on the pitch you can be fiery, as long as you are playing within the spirit of the game.

“Now sometimes it crosses over and it probably crossed over a bit on the pitch.

“There is no need to bring it off the pitch at all though, so that makes a bit of a joke of the whole sport really.”

Discussing his side’s performance, Randell said: “I think we misread the pitch really.

“We thought it was going to come on more than it did, it stopped a little bit more than we were expecting. So we were probably quite happy with just under 220.

“We probably could have done with reading the pitch slightly earlier and just adapting.”