Portland

Jon Dixon

Portland's defeat to Pavilion Sports at Reforne ended the islanders' unbeaten home record this season. The reversal, on the back of a crushing defeat at Poole last time out, has pushed the islanders down into eighth place in Dorset Funeral Plan League Division Two.

Captain Simon Barrett was disappointed with the outcome. He said: "This was a poor result for us. In dropping six catches we allowed Pavilion to score 30 or 40 more than they should have done and when we batted, once again, we simply did not put enough value on our wickets.

"The only real positives to come out of the game were Alex Charlton's new ball bowling plus the excellent left-arm spin duo of Jon Dixon and Jan Davey. We go into this week's game away at Hamworthy knowing that we must win and, if we do the basics well and enjoy a little bit of good luck, I am confident we will be successful."

The visitors batted first at Reforne and were indebted to opener Mackrell whose careful half-century was the backbone of their 151. Apart from Beale (25) non-one else really looked comfortable, especially against the spinners Dixon and Davey.

Although Davey took four wickets with his flighted deliveries, it was the slightly quicker Dixon who really put the pressure on with an incredible spell of 12 overs for just eight runs. Portland appeared favourites at the halfway point and must have fancied their chances of another home win.

However, accurate bowling from opener Martin (6-28) created all sorts of problems, with Triangle on 35-6 after only 13 overs. Despite a spirited knock of 36 not out from Jan Davey (4 fours and 2 sixes), the tail-enders were simply left with too much to do and the eventual margin of defeat was a comfortable 32 runs.

PRT 6, Pavilion Sports 19