BRANKSOME 222 (20pts) beat Dorchester SECONDS 104 (6pts) by 118 runs

DORCHESTER Seconds’ strife with the willow reared its ugly head once again as they fell 118 runs short at Branksome.

The county town outfit have breached the 200-mark just three times this season and after watching their hosts post 222, they managed a mere 104 in reply.

This Dorset League Division Two defeat pushes Ian Sibley’s men that bit closer to a potential dogfight, and the skipper admits that batting has been a problematic area for his side.

Reviewing Dorchester’s sixth reversal of the campaign, he said: “All their batsmen chipped in but we didn’t field very well and although our bowling was generally okay there still too many loose deliveries, which gave them a few too many runs.

“We had another off-day with the bat and Colin Edney (35) really needed a partner to hang around. If we could have found a partnership we would have got somewhere much closer to their target. Everyone in the top order, bar Colin, failed.

“Batting has been a major problem for a couple of years as there isn’t anyone making runs on a consistent basis.

“It’s a shame because the performance came on the back of a decent display the previous week when a few of us did make useful contributions.”

The home side won the toss and elected to bat, making 19 before the fall of the first wicket – Neil Bridle (12) being caught by Steve Budd off the bowling of Stuart Beasley (1-33).

Dorchester took wickets at fairly regular intervals but key to Branksome’s success, besides James Hardy plundering 49, was the fact that only one of their batsmen – Ian Bradley (0) – failed to reach double figures.

Sibley (2-29) claimed a couple of victims while Joe Power (3-51) went one better, despite his 10 overs proving somewhat expensive.

The second team’s reply never got going and the game was all but over at 52-6 – only the efforts of Colin Edney sparing any further embarrassment.

Jon Legg (10), James Dunham (11) and Budd (10) offered some form of resistance in the lower order but the damage had been done with Ian Broom (4-21) and Alex Warren (1-7) leading the home attack.