ABBOTSBURY 98-5 (18pts) beat BLANDFORD SECONDS 94 (3pts) by 5 wickets

ABBOTSBURY got their season off to a winning start as they defeated Blandford Seconds in County Division Four.

Swans’ skipper Simon Pengelly called the toss correctly and opted to bowl first on a breezy but sunny day in Blandford, with the experienced Grafton Straker and Krisnan Subramanian opening the Abbotsbury attack.

Blandford’s David Baker clipped the first ball of the innings for four but both openers subsequently found runs hard to come by against the metronomic medium pace of Straker and the wily leg spin of Subramanian.

Baker (14) attempted to hit the latter bowler over the top but only succeeded in picking out Ashley Harrow in the deep, who was making his debut for the Swans.

Immediately afterwards, Jamie Mitchell (5) fell in similar fashion with Jay Lintern gratefully snaffling the ball at mid-off.

Subramanian was now causing all sorts of problems, luring danger man Tony Couborough (8) out of his crease to be stumped by Swans’ gloveman Steve Budd and grabbing three further wickets as Blandford subsided to 33-6, Subramanian finishing with magnificent figures of 6-14 of his 8 overs.

Straker (0-20), who was unfortunate to finish wicketless, was replaced by left-armer Lintern (3-21) in attack, who soon found success as he clean bowled Jamie Snape (6) and followed up with a brilliant one-handed return catch to see off Ryan White for a duck.

Pengelly (0-13) brought himself and fellow spinner Aaron Oliver (0-13) into the attack which saw the Blandford tail fight back as number 11 David Abbott launched two sixes over the pavilion.

Ryan White also batted well for his 21 before being bowled by a quicker one from Chas Duerdoth (1-12) and the home side were finally bowled out in the 29th over.

Chasing a small target of 95 to win, Abbotsbury openers Pengelly (7) and Stuart Gill (33) batted positively, putting on 21 for the first wicket before the skipper was bowled by White.

Incoming Steve Budd (17) continued in similar vein, hitting a straight six as the Swans closed in on a straightforward victory. However, Abbotsbury suffered a wobble as some complacent batting saw a position of comfort at 66-1 decline to a jittery 82-5, with Gale and Mitchell both claiming a brace.

With Nick Kneebone (11*) and Aaron Oliver (4*) at the crease and unwilling to expose the Abbotsbury tail, a more cautious approach was undertaken as the batsmen got to the victory target.

* Abbotsbury CC are sponsored by Bride Valley Motors