WIMBORNE & COLEHILL 319-3 (20pts) beat MARTINSTOWN 64 (1pt) by 255 runs

MARTINSTOWN crashed to a club-record 255-run pummelling at unbeaten Dorset Premier League leaders Wimborne & Colehill.

Charlie Durant’s men were unable to prevent the powerhouses from storming to a 12th win from as many games.

The manner of their defeat will be concerning, however, with Wimborne piling on 319-3 from 50 overs before skittling a makeshift Town side for just 64.

Winning the toss and batting first, Wimborne filled their boots despite impressive stand-in bowling performances by Martinstown, who were hampered badly by poor availability.

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Tom Pope, usually a top-order batter, opened the bowling alongside left-arm spinner Durant (0-58), who chose to take the first over.

And Pope (1-55) responded with the wicket of Colin Randall (15) to leave Wimborne on 34-1, before the hosts began to assert dominance with the bat.

George Guirdham (27) perished to Ed Nichols (1-69) – one of two wicketkeepers to bowl on the day for Martinstown – together with Sean Williams (0-35).

Ben Bridgen was meanwhile making serene progress to his half-century and shared a massive 146 with Mark House as Town toiled in the field.

House (71) also notched a fifty but departed on his 61st ball when the part-time bowling of Lee House (1-39) snared Town’s third wicket, this time lbw.

There was no stopping Bridgen, though, as he claimed a deserved century before going on to chalk up an unbeaten 144 off 141 balls, including 20 boundaries.

Simon Watkins (22 from 16 balls) also hit three fours as Wimborne closed on a whopping 319-3.

Martinstown had plenty of batting in their arsenal but swiftly succumbed to Wimborne’s attack, losing nine wickets for 36 runs.

Joe Welch (3-23) took three of the four early wickets, backed up by Harry Fairchild (2-9), while Watkins (2-5) also tormented the visitors as they slipped to 43-7.

Ralph Daubeney (12) top-scored for Town but Guirdham (2-4) and Harry Reynolds (1-11) polished off the tail, leaving extras (17) the biggest contributor to the away side’s dismal 64 all out.

Speaking to Echosport, Durant said: “You can’t compete with someone like Wimborne when you’ve not got the level of players you need to be in the Premier League.

“Wimborne last season, with all of our players, we beat them twice.

“We’ve come to this year, they’ve strengthened and if you look at our teamsheet from the same game last year we had three players that played that day. It’s not good enough.”

Defeat for Martinstown came after a four-wicket loss to Bere Regis last week, Town posting 186-9 from 50 overs after a superb 86 from Will Maltby.

Pete Russell (73) and Tim Goodhew (39) then helped lead Bere to victory during the chase.

In County Division Three, Martinstown Seconds achieved back-to-back seven-wicket wins over Hamworthy Seconds and Cattistock & Symene Seconds.