Beaminster 247-9 (20pts) beat CRANBORNE 147 (7pts) by 100 runs

JOE Hawkins scored a half-century and picked up four wickets as struggling Beaminster finally broke their duck in Dorset League Division Two at the sixth time of asking.

With Cranborne riding high in the league table and the hosts missing the likes of Nick David, Simon Jones and Colin Lloyd, it appeared there would only be one likely outcome at the Memorial Ground at the start of play.

However, thanks to an inspired team performance by the hosts, the formbook was turned on its head.

Opting to bat first, Beam-inster got off to a slow start with Richard Runyard (43) and Dave Penman (32) both digging in to put on a patient stand of 81 for the opening wicket.

Runyard then attempted to up the run-rate and was clean bowled by the impressive J Rickerby (3-57).

But just when the away side were seemingly getting on top at 116-3, Baker (20) and Hawkins (58) entered the fray and began to force the bowlers on to the back-foot with some positive strokes.

Hugh Rathbone (22) and Adam Herring (13) then provided good support as Hawkins went on to reach his 50 before eventually falling to S Ingram (2-23) with five overs remaining.

Cranborne then set about skittling the tailenders, but thanks to a stubborn knock of 13 not out from debutant David Hall the hosts reached a season-high total of 247-9.

In reply, Cranborne began their innings in a positive manner with some hard-hitting boundaries, but Hawkins (4-49) soon responded by taking out three of their top four batsmen.

Baker (2-52) also got in on the act as the visitors collapsed from 30-1 to 89-6, with Steve Garland pulling off two sharp catches and Runyard producing a sharp stumping off a wide.

It quickly became clear there was no way back for Cranborne from there as Herring (2-19), Murray Legg (1-23) and Mark Barber (1-0) helped complete a 100-run success by mopping up the lower order with relative ease.

A delighted Baker said: “This first victory of the season has been a long time coming and it was perhaps a little unexpected considering we were forced to make eight changes to the team that faced Dorchester Seconds the previous week.

“However, everyone was up for it and I can have no complaints at all because we put on a superb all-round team performance, which hopefully we can now carry on in the weeks ahead.”

When asked to comment on Hawkins’ display, Baker went on to add: “Joe is in great form this season.

“He hasn’t been able to play as much as he would like but when he has been available he has been in amongst the runs and taking wickets.

“We got off to a slow start with the bat so when he came in we really needed someone to push the score along and he did exactly that by scoring a half-century off 32 balls.

“He then followed that up by taking four wickets, which was fantastic.”