BEAMINSTER 233 (20pts) beat POOLE TOWN III 62 (5pts) by 171 runs

BEAMINSTER proved too strong for bottom side Poole Town Thirds as they won by a whopping 171 runs at the Memorial Ground in their County Division Three clash.

Captain Ross Baker won the toss and batted first, with the highlight of the innings an explosive 85 from Cameron Lucas, which included 15 boundaries.

He was backed by useful contributions from Daniel Spiller (22), Nick Hollely (31) and Justin Gurd (26) as the hosts compiled a total of 233 all out.

Poole’s reply disintegrated as Beaminster’s bowlers ran through the visitors’ batting line up for 62 runs in just 23.2 overs, William Moss the pick of the attack with best figures of 4-18 from seven overs.

Beaminster were dealt an early blow in losing Baker (5) cheaply to Henri Abel (1-22), but Adam Herring (14) proved a perfect foil for the destructive Lucas, the pair putting on 96 for the second wicket until Herring was removed by Aaron Hemmings (2-44).

Soon afterwards Hemmings ousted Lucas and, when Lewis Keenan (10) fell to Shree Khambekar (2-29), Beaminster were left on 131-4.

But up stepped the middle order, who all weighed in with sizeable knocks to bump Beaminster’s total up to 233, despite losing their last three wickets for four runs.

Signs of Poole’s imminent collapse were hard to come by when Khambekar (13) and captain Nick Williams (7) scored 26 in the first five overs.

But the Poole innings subsided in dramatic fashion when Nick Hollely (2-16) removed Williams and Hemmings (0) in successive overs.

Francis Medley (2-3) was in outstanding form during his seven overs and quickly ousted Khambekar and Manav Kathpalia (4) for a brace of his own.

Moss then dismantled the middle order to claim the next four wickets, while Dave Persey (2-0) needed just two balls to wrap up the crushing win as Poole contrived to lose 10 wickets for 36 runs.

Only wicketkeeper Rob Hellawell (22) passed 20, with nine Poole batsmen falling in single figures.

A maximum-point win moves Beaminster into fifth, two points ahead of Kingston Lacy in sixth before their match away to Lacy on Saturday.