Weymouth beat Dorchester Seconds by seven wickets

WEYMOUTH collected a resounding seven-wicket victory in a one-sided County Division Two derby with Dorchester Seconds at Redlands.

Harry Mitchell’s Seasiders responded to last week’s thrashing at Corfe Mullen in perfect style and now sit sixth, while Nick Joslin’s Dorchester remain bottom with one win from nine games.

Weymouth now have two wins from their past three games and were never seriously tested by Dorchy’s second string after winning the toss and bowling first in light rain.

READ MORE: Corfe Mullen beat Weymouth by 171 runs

Martyn Richards (21) and David Gray (40) rebuilt after Lloyd Beals (1-32) bowled Ben Macklin (4) early on.

The duo shared 37 but Richards’ demise, caught by Shafeek Urumancheri off Adam Hoyes (1-41), saw Dorchester collapse to 156 all out from 54-1.

Josh Foot (0) injured a knee and was run out by Tim Guyett, while Gray had flirted with danger in his knock but was eventually pinned lbw by Rob Townley (2-35) after the ex-Portland man clean bowled Billy Baker (1).

Joe Power (22) and Matt Porter (30) offered brief resistance but Urumancheri’s leg-spin bamboozled both men, the Indian all-rounder going on to bowl Ben Alford (1) to earn excellent figures of 3-15.

Alex Horne struck 18 to push Dorchester over 150 but Mitchell (2-16) mopped up the tail as Weymouth were set a 157 target.

Weymouth also began their innings in rain but breezed along at five-an-over in their reply as Beals raced to 43, his knock containing eight fours.

He was dismissed just shy of a half-century by Horne (1-21) before in-form Jack Sapsworth (6) was trapped lbw by Joslin (1-25) to leave Weymouth on 97-2.

Mitchell kept the rate high with 19 off 26 balls in support of England, who was anchoring the innings on 45 by the time his skipper was stumped by Gray off Power (1-16).

But England recorded a fine unbeaten 54 in carrying his bat as Weymouth cruised to victory with 95 balls to spare.

Speaking to Echosport, Mitchell said: “The game was played in good spirits, friendly banter between both sides. That does help to make it fun and take the edge off it being a derby.

“I thought we were not back to our best but back to playing better cricket all round. We fielded a lot better, cleaner and we hit better lines and lengths.

“We were more patient and had a good buzz around the field. We wanted to make that right after last week. As a team, we had a good comeback game.”

He added: “For the first time this season, we had a really solid opening partnership. It sets the game up and makes all the difference, especially in a chase.

“Tommy and Lloyd knuckled down and put in the hard yards against their best two bowlers, their openers, and it nullified their noise in the field.

“They had a lack of cutting edge with the ball after that. For everyone else coming in, it was pretty easy going, even in the drizzle.”

Weymouth Seconds’ wonderful unbeaten start to the season continued with a crushing 179-run win over Cattistock & Symene Thirds in County Division Six.

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