Weymouth beat Shillingstone by four wickets

WEYMOUTH won their first County Division Two match of the season, beating Shillingstone by four wickets at Redlands.

Harry Mitchell’s Seasiders were relegated from Division One last season after an 80-point deduction dished out for fielding an unregistered player three times.

However, Weymouth began their quest to earn an immediate return in fine style, beating Shillingstone despite several first-team players missing out.

On a placid Redlands pitch, Weymouth did well to restrict the visitors to 194-6, although they missed out on full bowling points.

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Graham Puckett (1-20) and Adam Hoyes (1-41) helped Weymouth fight back from 50-0 to claim scalps of Robin Cunningham (13) and Steve Savage (0) respectively.

The remaining wickets fell to spin as Chris Cole (45) perished to Mitchell (1-39) just shy of his fifty, while Henry Turpie (52) claimed his first half-century of the season.

Turpie’s fluent 55-ball knock was halted by Weymouth’s new signing Jackson Jose (2-48), the left-arm spinner also accounting for Alex Ashmore first ball as Shill set Weymouth 195 to win.

Weymouth got bogged down early on and lost Tom England (12) to David Lockyer (2-36).

However, a counter-attacking 27 off 22 balls from Laurence Tonkin got Weymouth back on track.

That was until the treble loss of Tonkin, opener Alex Lark (21) and Mitchell (1), which stunted the Seasiders at 71-4.

Jack Sapsworth scored freely in response along with Kieron Womble (17), the duo putting on 44 for the fifth wicket.

However, Womble and debutant Neil Patel (5) were removed by Turpie (2-45), still leaving Weymouth 49 runs short of victory.

It was left to Sapsworth (47no) to strike five fours and a six to push the Seasiders along, ably supported by Shafeek Urumancheri (17no) as Weymouth got home with 4.4 overs remaining.

Speaking to Echosport, Mitchell said: “It was exactly what I wanted before the game – start the season with a win.

“We’ve carried that momentum from pre-season, so that’s three wins in a row now.

“We had a good chat about how we want to go about our cricket, with bat and ball. We struggled to get over the line but we got there, that’s the most important thing.

“I said to the players to make themselves undroppable, make a mark in the first game. That’s a really big thing, and people stepped up.

“Graham with the ball, keeping it tight, Jackson on debut was good.

“Shaf, considering he’s not had pre-season at all, for him to come in and get straight into his work was good.

“Then with the bat, the wicket was slow and it took a bit of spin.

“Jack was exceptional. His first big innings for the first team and something to move on going forward.

“Laurence also on debut took the attack to them and changed the momentum of the game.”

On Weymouth’s fielding, Mitchell added: “It needs a bit of work but first game of the season, 194 you’d take it.

“We took our catches but the ground fielding needs improvement. We’ll get there with a few more training sessions.”

Dorset Trade Skills man of the match: Jack Sapsworth

Elsewhere, Weymouth Seconds thrashed Parley Fourths by 177 runs in their County Division Six opener.

Andy Jarvis’ men host Dorchester Thirds at Redlands on Saturday (1.30pm).