DORCHESTER made light work of local rivals Martinstown as the hosts romped to a seven-wicket win in Dorset Premier Two on Saturday.
Three wickets each for captain Dan Belt and Will Caldwell helped restrict the visitors to 155, with Henry Lewis (32) top scoring for the Villagers.
Quenton Miller (40) and Caldwell (35) provided the bulk of the runs in Dorchester’s reply and the county town outfit eased to victory with more than 10 overs to spare.
The win takes Dorchester above Martinstown in the table, putting them in second place behind Sherborne, who scraped home against Wimborne & Colehill Seconds by three runs.
“We were very pleased to keep them to 155, and it could have been a lot less,” said Belt. “We bowled 41 extras which was a bit disappointing, but the bowlers did their job and Martinstown never got above three or four runs an over.
“They had a fairly decent start but we picked up a couple of wickets and then the rest came at regular intervals.
“It was a very good bowling and fielding performance from our lads.
“Pete Moxom got us off to a good start with the bat and then Will and Quenton batted very well together.
“We were very happy with how the game went and that result puts us above Martinstown in the table now.”
However, Martinstown skipper Ed Nichols obviously wasn’t too pleased with the outcome from his side’s point of view, but he feels there were mitigating circumstances.
“We went there a little bit under strength as a couple of the players weren’t about this week,” he said. “We’d like to have gone there with a full strength side.
“Henry Lewis batted well against a pretty good opening bowling attack, then we lost a few wickets and no-one else scored anything of real substance.
“They were the better side and chased down our total well.”
He added: “We’ve played our first seven fixtures now and are where we expected to be.
“If we can keep going and get some good results things will be looking really positive.”