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Struggling Bournemouth slip to another league defeat

Bournemouth's Luke Webb (Picture: James Robinson)
Bournemouth's Luke Webb (Picture: James Robinson)

BOURNEMOUTH are facing a must-win visit to Hook & Newnham Basics on Saturday, after suffering a fourth successive ECB Southern Premier League defeat.

Lymington became the latest side to beat them – Northants all-rounder was Gareth Berg influential in his side’s six-wicket victory.

Dorset captain Luke Webb and Simon Woodruff hit half-centuries, but Lymington cruised past Bournemouth’s modest 187 to take fifth spot in the table.

Bournemouth, in contrast, remain bottom of the pile, five points behind Hook, hence the critical nature of their visit to the KGV.

Facing a proven first-class new ball attack of Berg (3-40) and James Hartshorn (3-39), who plays for Wellington in New Zealand’s Plunkett Shield, was always going to be an ordeal for Bournemouth’s top order.

Tasmanian Tom Willoughby (20) made a start, but Tom Robinson and Ollie Shrubsole are finding it hard going and neither has made 70 league runs in aggregate this season.

At 33-3, responsibility fell on Webb (66) and Woodruff (50), whose 83-run stand lifted the Lions to 116 before Berg, Hartshorn and leg-spinner Danny Cox (3-75) made further inroads.

Webb dropped anchor and, after adding 41 with Jake Hurley (20), was ninth out before Bournemouth were dismissed for 187.

Terry Crabb (30) and Ben Rogers (28) trimmed 48 off the target before Willoughby, bowling left-arm spin, took 3-42 to create some uncertainty in the Lymington camp.

Berg released the anxiety by cracking seven boundaries in his breezy 36, adding 45 with Josh Royan, who finished 23 not out.

The Oxford University student then was able to sit back and watch fellow teenager Kamran Dhariwal unleash a boundary-strewn assault on the Bournemouth bowlers.

He blasted eight fours and two sixes in a blistering 53 not out which carried Lymington home.