Puddletown beat Broadstone Seconds by seven wickets

ADAM Barrett scored an inspired century for Puddletown, leading the Kingfishers to a seven-wicket victory over Broadstone Seconds in County Division Two.

Barrett has been in red-hot form with the bat, scoring four half-centuries this season. Against the Delph side he finally went one better, his 107 coming off 90 balls and containing 17 fours and four maximums.

Earlier, Puddletown’s bowlers had done the damage by dismissing Broadstone for 165.

READ MORE: Sturminster & Hinton beat Puddletown by four wickets - report

That was despite a strong start by Richard Poole, who scored 24 of the visitors’ 30 before he offered a return catch to James Morris (2-43).

Morris, bowling in tandem with his father Dave, who recorded economical figures of 1-16 from his nine overs, helped dent Broadstone’s hopes of a large total.

The duo checked Broadstone at 56-3, but a fine 56 from opener Robin Harmse contributed to a 70-run stand for Broadstone’s fourth wicket.

Spinners then ruined Broadstone’s day as Rob Snow (2-38) and Barrett (3-28) combined to tear through the middle order, taking Harmse along with them.

Pete Phillips (1-8) mopped up the penultimate wicket and Evie Snow sealed the deal with a run out as Broadstone suffered a collapse of 7-39.

Snow then opened the batting but became the first wicket to fall as Ryan Andrews (1-29) snuck one through her defences.

However, Puddletown recovered superbly with Barrett in destructive form and aided by Phillips, who struggled for fluency but crucially kept his wicket intact.

The duo piled on 122, with Barrett racing into the nineties by the time Phillips (35) departed lbw to Adam McCrae (2-27) having played the pivotal anchor role.

With 29 runs still to get, Barrett chalked up 16 of them as he celebrated a first Saturday League ton since 2019 and his seventh in all.

Although McCrae had him caught on 107, Puddletown did not have long to wait for victory as Jamie Edwards (8no) hit two quick fours.

Speaking to Echosport, an elated Barrett, the second-highest runscorer in the Dorset League with 412, said: “We won the toss and bowled, which with wet weather around was the right thing to do.

“We had our premier bowler Dave back, he bowled brilliantly and James picked up two wickets.

“Then, our slower bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals. We always fancied ourselves to chase that and the batters obliged.”

On his century, Barrett added: “I’ve arguably chucked away four of them already this year.

“I’ve seen the grins on the sidelines when I was on about 80.

“We got to drinks and they were like: ‘You’ll find a way to chuck this away’ but it’s good to bring up three figures and get us over the line.

“Also, they were good bowlers. Pete struggled but stuck with me, which was important. He’s dug in and done a good innings for us.”

Elsewhere, Puddletown Seconds were washed out by the rain at Broadstone Thirds.