Bere Regis beat Dorchester by five wickets

DORCHESTER’S three-year grip on the Dorset Premier League title came to an end after a five-wicket defeat at Bere Regis.

Dan Belt’s men needed to better the result of leaders Poole Town by nine points going into the clash.

However, Dorchester will take solace in the fact that Poole’s four-wicket win over Sherborne made their result at Bere irrelevant, although Wimborne did leapfrog them into second after defeating Cattistock & Symene by 29 runs.

Dorchester were not helped by a brief rain shower at Bere just before the toss, meaning whoever bowled first would enjoy extra assistance for the bowlers.

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The fortunate call was made by Bere skipper Brian Keegan, who duly opted to bowl first and watched from behind the stumps as three Dorchester players made ducks early on.

Dorchester made a disastrous start as a Richard Payne (2-23) brace and a Rob Murphy (2-20) wicket put paid to Jim Ryall, Jamie Barrett and Simon Mitchem.

Dorchester were 2-3 but battled back courtesy of a dogged half-century from Eral Anderson (52), assisted by Jon Legg (18).

When they both departed, Dorchester were 94-5 and had laid a platform for Gautham Rajendar to score 58 from 61 balls, while Dan Belt crashed 48 from 42, including ten boundaries.

Good bowling from Matt King (3-29) helped restrict Dorchester to just 202 all out – a total that always looked vulnerable.

James Dunham (2-35) struck twice in quick succession to remove Rich Cole (17) and Jacob Kennard (0) but the in-form Sam Goodhew stroked a fabulous 57 against his former club in reply.

The all-rounder was well supported by Pete Russell (35) before Rob Nobbs (2-34) came into the attack and took a quick brace himself, also removing Murphy (1).

With on 86-4, Goodhew was joined by brother Tim and the siblings put on 76 for the fifth wicket before Sam departed 41 runs short of victory.

New batter Cam Robertson wasted little time in displaying his sweet timing, climbing into Rajendar (1-19) with a big six over cow corner.

Tim Goodhew (43no) continued to accumulate and Robertson clipped four to fine leg to finish the game as Dorchester were finally deposed as champions.

Speaking to Echosport, Belt was proud of his side despite the outcome.

He said: “We came in not worrying about Poole, trying to pick the victory up.

“At the end of the day we’ve had a good season. We’ve played some very good cricket and Poole’ve played some very good cricket. They’ve just picked up more points and the extra win.

“I’m proud of the boys and what we’ve done. We’ll just look forward to next season.”

On the title defence, Belt said: “Teams are going to come out and want to beat us.

“The last two years they’ve put strong teams out against us and we’re the team to beat. We haven’t come across a weak team, especially the top four.

“We’ve enjoyed this year, had a real good laugh, played some good cricket and that’s the only way of looking at it. There’s no need to beat ourselves up for not winning the league.”

He added: “Poole away, probably only picking up a few points that day was the big turning point.

“That proved that when we’d all won the same amount of games but they were seven or eight points ahead.

“If we’d picked up six points, there’s even more pressure on them to hold on to a two-point lead.

“We’ll come back with a bigger squad, look to claim it back, give Poole and Wimborne a good run again and go from there.”

In the winners’ enclosure, Keegan said: “On the back of what we didn’t do the week before we had to find some answers from somewhere.

“I wanted to be competitive and from my perspective that’s competitive and a bit more.

“We’ve got a good side but what’s hit us throughout the season is unavailability.

“Hopefully we can break the duck of finishing fourth. We need two batters, probably two openers, but we’ll see where we go.

“Work will be done and we’ll see where that takes us over the winter.”

Elsewhere, Dorchester Seconds lost by ten wickets to Weymouth in County Division Two and Bere Regis Seconds lost by two wickets at Cattistock & Symene Seconds in Division Three.