WIMBORNE & COLEHILL 127-4 (20pts) beat DORCHESTER 126 all out (6pts) by six wickets DORCHESTER’S quest to seal back-to-back Dorset League Premier Division titles got off to a nightmare start at Wimborne & Colehill.

The county town outfit looked a shadow of last year’s championship-winning team and the home side took full advantage, bowling out the visitors for 126 before knocking off the required runs for the loss of just four wickets.

For Dorchester skipper Martyn Richards the defeat served as an early wake-up call.

He said: “When you look at the scorecard it makes grim reading and the loss has certainly brought us crashing down back to Earth. I also think the lads now know just how tough it is going to be to retain the title.

“Wimborne, on paper, are not the strongest side but most of our batsmen got out to poor shots and the ones that did get in ended up falling to good catches.

“To be honest it was like a bad dream. Had we got a couple of early wickets in their reply we might have gone on to win but the two batsmen at the top of their order scored runs and it proved enough.

“It would have been nice to have got the season off to a good start but I do think this will give us the early wake up call that perhaps we need. “We certainly do not want to experience that feeling again. This was an unexpected defeat and now we must work hard and make sure we get back on track immediately.”

Dorchester took to the crease first and their innings could not have got off to a worse start as Steve Gerety fell for a duck after being tapped leg before by the impressive G Jones (4-18).

That very early setback seemed to send shockwaves through the visitors and it was not long before they found themselves in deep trouble on 41-6 with only Lee Haynes (16) and Dan Belt (13) putting up any resistance.

Ian Sibley (21) then showed some fight in the middle-order along with Richards (11) and Quenton Miller (29) but none of them stayed around long enough to put on a stand capable of saving the innings.

In the end Wimborne were left a target of 126 and they set about chasing that down in fine style with C Randall (39) and A Hayward (54) putting on a first-wicket partnership of 71.

Dorset all-rounder Belt (1-49) then bowled Randall before James Dunham eventually caught out Hayward off the bowling of Gerety but the damage had been done.

Miller (2-36) also claimed the wickets of D Guest (1) and R Hatcher (0) but despite stuttering from 71-1 to 80-3 the hosts comfortably got home with G Cole (10 not out) helping to steady the ship in the middle-order.