FERNDOWN WAYFARERS 200-4 (20pts) beat Dorchester 96 (2pts) by 104 runs

DORCHESTER were left to rue missed opportunities as they slumped to defeat at the hands of an Eric Linge-inspired Ferndown Wayfarers.

The home side entered the Dorset Premier League encounter on the back of an alarming loss at previously winless Winton.

But with their captain, and Dorset CCC ace, back in the side, Wayfarers bounced back at the first attempt.

Linge was easily the star of the show as he plundered 122 runs before claiming four wickets.

However, the home skipper was dropped on more than one occasion and opposite number Martyn Rich-ards was left to reflect on what might have been.

The Dorchester captain said: “It was a fantastic performance by him and it’s not every day you score 122 and take four wickets, so we have to applaud that.

“But we passed up a straightforward opportunity to get him out when he was on 25 and with no disrespect to his team-mates, it would have been a very different afternoon had we taken that chance.

“Sam Goodhew was the unfortunate one but then James Lewis nearly took another catch off Eric, which would have been a heroic effort if he had managed it.

“We didn’t take those chances and Eric went on to score 122.”

Linge accounted for more than half of his side’s tally as Ferndown closed on 200-4.

But the county town outfit, with a deep batting line-up, were unable to make an impact at the crease.

Only Richards (21) and James Lewis (20) made it into double figures as the visitors were skittled for their lowest total of the season – a meagre 96.

The former added: “At the end of the day, we should have got 200. We needed someone to put their hand up and get the runs but it didn’t happen.

“Eric bowled stump to stump and claimed his four wickets doing that. The pitch was also feeling the effects of the recent wet weather we’ve had and he played the conditions better than we did.

“Myself and James were the only ones to score a couple of boundaries.

“The pitch was not great but they bowled fairly straight and we were fairly luckless. Whereas we dropped a few catches, they had some that stuck.

“Pete Moxom, who was batting further down the order after injuring himself while bowling, played on to his own stumps when the ball came off his toe but on the occasions where the ball hit Eric’s toe, it went off in different directions.

“We also lost Quenton Miller through illness on the morning of the match.

“It was a pretty uninspired performance from us. Things didn’t go our way but perhaps we didn’t work hard enough to make sure that they did.

“We’ll train hard this week and make sure we raise our game for Saturday. We certainly need to in order to get ourselves back in the top half of the table.”

Dorchester actually made a decent start to proceedings as James Raftery was dismissed for a duck, trapped leg before by Dan Belt (1-14).

Jon Legg (1-15) also struck early to leave Wayfarers in a spot of danger at 10-2.

However, Linge then entered the fray and with useful contributions from Will Sansom (26) and Daryl Baines (28 not out), the hosts were able to rescue the situation.

The county town outfit reached 37 before the fall of their first wicket – Rob Waite (8) being clean bowled by Karl Forrest (3-11).

Dorchester then lost five wickets with just 16 runs added to leave themselves with a mountain to climb.

And despite the defiance of Richards, the away side were eventually sent packing in the 37th over.