BROADSTONE 262-6 (18pts) beat WEYMOUTH 260-6 (8pts) by four wickets

IT was a game of two halves at the Delph as Weymouth fell to a four-wicket defeat against Broadstone despite producing their best batting display of the season so far.

The Seasiders’ top-order went into the Dorset Premier League clash having grossly under performed in their side’s previous three games but thanks to skipper Paul Payne (81) and Dean Janaway (64) they were soon making amends.

The talented duo put on a glorious opening stand of 176 before Matt Spraggs (3-41) dismissed both of them in quick succession to slow the run rate.

A frustrated Payne described the stroke that saw him caught out by Matt Thomas as “a stupid shot” and the innings never really reached the same heights after that despite the efforts of Ben Lawes (27), Faraz Ulhaq (18) and Andy Jarvis (18 not out).

The regretful captain said: “The first half of the game was great. We lost the toss and got stuck in but we would have chosen to bat first anyway.

“Dean and I put on 176 for the first wicket and it looked like we were cruising towards 280 but when Dean got out I played a stupid shot when I really should have batted through the rest of the innings.

“Despite a fine cameo from Andy Jarvis, we ended up getting a bit tied down towards the end of the innings but to finish up on 260-6 still gave us a great chance.

“Unfortunately though, apart from Rob Nobbs, who picked up 2-32, we did not perform very well with the ball.

“Too many of our bowlers had off days and we did not put it in the right areas consistently enough but fair play to their batsmen because it is never easy chasing down that sort of target.”

The key stand for Broadstone came from Robin Wallis (70) and Ryan Wiltshire (29), who put on 104 for the fourth wicket after the Seasiders had reduced the hosts to 116-3.

Thomas also chipped in with a fine 47 at the top of the order but eventually it was John Burns (12 not out) and Mike Holm (8 not out) that guided the Poole outfit over the finishing line with 4.4 overs still remaining.

Weymouth also conceded 48 extras in the innings, which continues to be a nagging concern, but Payne remains optimistic that his side are on the right tracks.

He added: “It is frustrating because we went there looking for the win but we have still come away with eight points and must now turn our attention to bouncing back with a victory at home against Wimborne & Colehill on Saturday.

“Once again we played some good cricket but at the moment we can’t seem to be able to get all three areas of our game functioning at the same time.

“However, we are fully aware of what we need to work on and I am confident it will all come together soon.”