CHARLTON DOWN 149 (3pts) lost to BEAMINSTER 150-2 (20pts) by eight wickets.

BEAMINSTER maintained their position at the top of County Division Two with a comfortable eight-wicket derby victory to break their horrible run of form at Charlton Down.

The visitors had been bowled out for 99 and 123 on their past two trips to the Herrison Oval but this triumph firmly put those memories to bed.

After electing to field, the visitors started well as South African opener Daniel Swift (3-14) continued his superb form with two wickets in his first spell.

Captain Ross Baker (3-23) continued the good work as the home team’s top order were all dismissed for single figure scores.

From 89-8, Charlton Down’s late order staged a recovery with Javed Gill (27) and Mark Homewood (35no) the main protagonists as they closed on 149 with the final wicket falling to the last delivery of the innings.

Dave Persey (2-26) and Nick Hollely (1-21) were the other wicket-takers while Swift bagged three slip catches.

Beaminster’s chase started poorly as they lost Baker (0) who was bowled by Dan Stevens (1-28) in the second over.

However, Chris Park (62no) and Ali Crawford (33) played magnificently to rebuild the innings with a 71-run stand.

After the second wicket was lost, Swift (40no) played aggressively to finish the game in style hitting seven boundaries including two maximums.

Park’s innings included nine boundaries as Beaminster chased their target in the 25th over, receiving maximum points to preserve their four-point gap to second-placed Witchampton.

Speaking to Echosport, Baker said: “We’re very pleased with the win, it was a good performance and I thought we controlled the match really well.

“It’s nice to win in a derby and remain at the top of the table, so it was a really good weekend for us.

“It was a very good batting display but we let ourselves down a little bit in the field. We’ve got to work on our fielding – a few catches went down and that could’ve dismissed them for under 100 if we’d have been more clinical.

“But our bowling in the middle was really good, tight and put them under a lot of pressure. We dismissed their main batsmen pretty quickly.

“After a poor start – I got out in the second over – our second-wicket stand was superb. Chris and Ali batted fantastically well and put (Charlton Down) under a lot of pressure.

“Then Dan came in, played very aggressively and we won comfortably, so it’s very pleasing.”

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