BEAMINSTER 196-8 (9pts) lost to COMPTON HOUSE 187-8 (19pts) by two wickets (rain affected)

BEAMINSTER were left thinking what might have been following this rain-affected defeat against Compton House at the Memorial Field.

A fantastic second-wicket stand of 85 between Fred Everitt (73) and Simon Jones (50) appeared to put the hosts in good shape but when that partnership was eventually broken the rest of the innings proved tough going as 109-1 quickly became 136-6.

Jack Walklett (13) and Dave Percy (11no) then dug in to help their side to 196-8, only for a spell of rain to then reduce Compton’s target to 182 off 42 overs.

At first the visitors stumbled in their chase as Ross Baker (4-48) and Jones (2-54) piled the pressure on with the ball, but from 93-6 they somehow recovered thanks to a superb innings from Nick Price (76no).

The middle-order batsman just refused to budge and eventually saw his team home in the 35th over.

Beaminster skipper Will Everitt said: “That was probably our hardest loss.

“I don’t mind losing against sides that beat us because they are better but I thought we were evenly matched and had we just done a bit more we would have won it ourselves.

“We started very well with the bat in difficult conditions but when the partnership between Fred and Simon was finally broken myself and Ross Baker should have done better.

“We then had them struggling on 93-6 but we just couldn’t grab the wicket of Price, who ended up winning them the game.

“That sort of thing happens at every standard of cricket but we couldn’t help thinking at the end that we could have done more to get him out.

“He didn’t offer up a single chance and perhaps as captain I should have tried more to buy his wicket.

“It’s a pretty sore defeat to take but all we can do now is learn from it and try and be a bit more resilient in the middle order.”

Beaminster, who host Branksome & Parkstone this Saturday, now lie eighth in Dorset League Division Three but are still just 15 points adrift of the top five.