FERNDOWN 233-9 (20pts) beat DORCHESTER SECONDS 152 all out (8pts) by 81 runs

DORCHESTER Seconds suffered an opening day defeat at the hands of Ferndown in Dorset Funeral Plan Division Two.

Newly-promoted Dorchester fell 81 runs short of their hosts' total but captain Nick Joslin felt it was a game they let slip.

He said: "It's all good experience for us but it's a shame we lost because we wanted a better start to the season. Without sounding bitter I felt we lost it more than they won it, we dropped several catches and gave away over 30 extras.

"It's now down to us to improve, but there were some positives from the game such as Tom Caines' bowling and Simon Joslin hitting 43 with the bat.

"We've got a lot of good players still to come back in and that will put us in good stead."

The county town side won the toss and decided to put their opponents in to bat. The early signs looked good as Stuart Beesley dismissed Darren Drew for a duck with only 13 on the scoreboard but a strong middle order of Chris Armstrong (51), James Raftery (39) and Dave Fillingham (43) enabled Ferndown to create a healthy target for Dorchester.

Nick Joslin (1-59) and Tom Caines (3-45) took two late wickets to prevent the hosts from pulling further ahead.

In reply, Dorchester made a worse start than their opponents and lost their opening wicket, of Colin Edney, with just five scored. The dismissal came courtesy of Dave Ballam whose eight maidens hampered Dorchester's ability to hit runs.

George Thomas provided (13) some stability until Simon Joslin (43) and Lewis Stripp (37) gave the county town side hope.

But with Joe Baggs (9) top scoring from the remaining six batsmen, the writing was on the wall and Dorchester were unable to seriously challenge Ferndown's total of 233.

Joslin, whose side host Witchampton at the Rec on Saturday (2pm), added: "Eight points out of a defeat isn't the end of the world but we'll be looking to kick on against Witchampton who will be no pushovers."

KING GEORGE V SCOREBOARD

FERNDOWN

N Rexton c S Beesley b Langford 34

D Drew lbw S Beesley 0

S Bellamy b M Langford 5

C Armstrong b J Baggs 51

J Raftery b T Caines 39

D Fillingham not out 43

D Howe b T Caines 20

D Rose b N Joslin 1

K Forrest c & b T Caines 5

S Armstrong run out 0

D Ballam not out 0

Extras 35

Total (9 wkts, 45 overs) 233

FoW: 1-13, 2-52, 3-71, 4-150, 5-165, 6-215, 7-221, 8-233, 9-233

Bowling: M Peak 7-0-25-0, S Beesley 8-2-20-1, N Joslin 11-1-59-1, M Langford 7-1-36-2, J Baggs 5-0-42-1, T Caines 7-0-45-3

DORCHESTER

M Langford b D Fillingham 15

C Edney b D Ballam 1

G Thomas b J Raftery 13

S Joslin c D Fillingham b N Rexton 43

L Stripp c D Howe b N Rexton 37

M Chalmers b N Rexton 3

J Baggs b N Rexton 9

S Beesley c D Fillingham b K Forrest 0

T Caines b K Forrest 1

M Peak b K Forrest 3

N Joslin not out 1

Extras 26

Total (all out, 40.4 overs) 152

FoW: 1-5, 2-32, 3-61, 4-93, 5-113, 6-146, 7-146, 8-147, 9-148

Bowling: D Ballam 12-8-22-1, K Forrest 8.4-2-18-3, D Fillingham 4-0-15-1, N Rexton 9-0-46-4, J Raftery 7-2-43-1