WEYMOUTH SECONDS 197 (7pts) lost to BOURNEMOUTH 198-7 (20pts) by three wickets

JOHN Ryan was quick to take responsibility following Weymouth Seconds’ three-wicket defeat at Bournemouth.

After seeing his side post 197, the second-team skipper had the chance to remove dangerman David Iles (88no) and halt the home charge.

However, Ryan failed to claim the catch and second-placed Bourne-mouth went on to clinch the Dorset League Division One spoils.

The captain said: “We could have won it. We took wickets quite steadily but I dropped a catch off Iles and if I had taken it we could have gone on and won, so I’ve only got myself to blame.

“We got put into bat, which is not my favourite way of playing as we seem to do better when bowling first and batting second, and only scored 197 on a wicket that was much better than that.

“Quite a few of our batsmen got into the 20s and 30s but no-one was able to go on and get a bigger score.

“So instead of setting a target of around 250 and making a good game of it, we only got 197.

“Their opening batsman, Jake Hurley, was one of two players who had to leave early so he set off as if he was playing golf.

“He got a lot of fours, and a six, early on so we changed things and got the spinners on, which slowed things down.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t pull it off in the end but we gave a good account of ourselves and we’ll move on.”

After losing the toss, Weymouth were inserted by the hosts and within 20 minutes saw both James Almond (13) and Luke Carrington (0) return to the pavilion.

Andy Bray (25) and Sean Fitzgerald (19) got the Seasiders rolling but the visitors then found themselves in a spot of bother at 73-5.

Dave Trotter (39) and Faraz Ulhaq (33) lifted the mood by putting on 67 for the sixth-wicket while Vijay Mote (15) and Neil Walton (12no) provided decent contributions in the lower order.

All six of Bournemouth’s bow-lers bagged wickets to set their batsmen a victory target of 198.

Jake Hurley (38) laid the foundations for a successful run chase when he smashed a quickfire 22 from just seven balls.

Spinners Ryan (1-27) and Ulhaq (2-41) stemmed the flow somewhat but there was no stopping Iles, and the Bournemouth number five produced a match-winning total to see his side over the line in 35.1 overs.