BEAMINSTER captain Ross Baker was full of praise for Leo Gurd, who scored 46 in their one-wicket County Division Two victory over Sherborne.

The praise comes despite Baker admitting that Gurd has probably not played as much as he had hoped.

Baker said: “It was fantastic. He has not played as much as he had hoped to due to work commitments and he has not been in form to score runs as a consequence.

“He was superb on Saturday, it was a very mature innings and he did not look like getting out, but he unfortunately did get out in the end.

“Up until that point he looked very assured compared to the rest of the batting order he stood out.”

The wicketkeeper batted at sixth

and came close to his half-century before he was bowled out by Dale Coghlan.

The runs proved crucial as Beaminster hit 131, having bowled out Sherborne for 127 after the home side won the toss and elected to bat.

Sherborne proved tough opponents with a pitch that made the ball bounce unpredictable and difficult to bat on.

Despite the low total of their opponents, Baker admitted they had wanted better.

He said: “We were a little bit disappointed not to have restricted them to less, we had the top five out so early about 40 runs on the board.

“We had been hoping to restrict them to less than 100 but there were a couple of dropped catches in the middle period that let them get over 100.”