MARTINSTOWN 130 (3pts) lost to POOLE TOWN 97-3 (19pts) by 7 wickets (revised target 94)

HIGH-FLYING Poole Town breezed past Martinstown to condemn the Lower Ashton Farm outfit to their 13th top-flight loss of the season.

The hosts were powerless to prevent the Poole attack running through their batting order, after the away side won the toss and elected to field.

Matrinstown looked to be ticking along quite nicely with the score on 86-2 but, with a platform set, Ed Nichols’ men suddenly found themselves slumping to 98-6.

Batting at number three Steve Gerety produced a brisk score of 44 at just more than a run-a-ball, and Tom Nicholls hit two fours and a six in his knock of 21.

But that was as good as it got for the Martinstown batsmen, as they were bowled out 130 with just less than seven overs of their innings to spare.

Joe Wilson, who has been in devastating form with the ball this season, returned 4-36 for the Poole Park outfit.

With bad weather around, the away side then saw their target reduced to 94 in 36 overs and made relatively light work of the task.

After losing the top three of Brewster Surridge, Badrul Alam and Ciaran Quinn, it was left to Lewis Marais and Richard Armstrong to guide the away team home after just 23.4 overs.

Ryan Chase, John Stewart and Teddy Andrews grabbed a wicket each for the home side.

The result means that Martinstown are destined to finish second from bottom in the division. They are 30 points behind Dorchester, the side they are due to play in their final game of the campaign on Saturday.

Poole go into the final round of fixtures five points behind leaders Sherborne.