Puddletown lose to Martinstown by seven wickets

PUDDLETOWN were given a rude awakening to life in the Dorset Premier League as Martinstown charged to a seven-wicket success at Plush.

Puddletown, who have risen sharply through the leagues after playing in County Division Four as recently as 2017, are embarking on their debut year in Dorset’s top flight.

Adam Barrett’s men cantered to the County Division One title last season but were missing several key players for their maiden Premier League contest.

Their tactics to frustrate the Martinstown attack were clear after winning the toss and electing to bat first.

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Puddle proved a tough nut to crack as they built slowly to 61-2 from 28 overs, losing just Reegan Norman (15) and James Mitchell (10) lbw to David Trotter (1-15) and Fraser Hill (2-18) respectively.

With wickets in hand, they exploded into life as opener Rob Snow (40) struck four boundaries and a six.

However, spinner Charlie Durant (2-45) claimed the scalps of Barrett (19) and Michael Crabb (3) in consecutive overs before captain Sam Kershaw (4-45) had Craig Eastment (2) and Ryan Norman (19) caught.

With Puddletown now on 106-6, a defiant 30 from 17 balls by Steve Chaldecott – containing four boundaries and a six – helped propel the hosts to 170.

Martinstown rocketed to 63-0 off the first six overs of their reply as ex-Dorset batter Ed Nichols and Sean Williams (20) punished an under-strength Puddle attack missing star bowler Adam Weir.

Nichols hit five sixes in the first five overs and reached his 50 before Williams edged Ryan Norman behind to Dorset youth keeper and son Reegan.

Norman took another good catch off teenage Dorset talent Will Maltby (5) as left-arm spinner Snow (1-36) struck soon afterwards to leave Town on 83-2.

Ryan Norman finally got the wicket of Nichols (62) but classy new signing Gordon Wint (49no) continued to attack Puddle’s bowlers along with Teddy Andrews (28no).

The duo put on an unbroken 68 in nine overs to carry Martinstown to a convincing win with just under half the innings remaining.

Speaking to Echosport, a delighted Kershaw said: “It’s always a potential banana skin, obviously playing a new team. You don’t know what to expect.

“But we bowled well up top, dried the runs up really early. We let ourselves down in the field, we were a bit poor with a couple of dropped catches – early season rust.

“So, there’s plenty to work on. We managed to restrict them to quite a low score on a free-scoring ground. We were quite happy with that.

“Then with the batting Ed got us off to a great start, he went to town early which put us on the front foot.

“We lost a couple of quick wickets but Gordon settled into that number four role and brought home the bacon at the end.”

Puddle captain Barrett admitted Martinstown’s batting had been too good on the day.

“I actually thought we batted quite well,” he told Echosport.

“One thing we’ve noted in Division One, the fourth and fifth bowlers you can look to get after. But it became very apparent that Martinstown not only had five good bowlers but possibly six or seven.

“Even the change bowlers were really difficult to get after. We scored slowly and kept wickets in hand, accelerating towards the end.

“We knew 170 wasn’t enough with the strength of their batting, but it made for a competitive second innings and gave us something to bowl at.

“When it came to their batting, they just went off like a train. That’s where our lack of experience really showed.

“We chucked on Snowy and Ryan, who took a lot of wickets last year, and they slowed the scoring rate down.

“It was disappointing to lose, first time in the Premier League, but with the side we had there’s something to build on, for sure.”