BOURNEMOUTH seamer Matt Metcalfe produced the best bowling spell of his life at Dean Park to help ease Dorset into the MCCA Trophy final.

A big crowd turned up at the Bournemouth ground yesterday expecting a tight semi-final tussle between two sides who had both won all three of their completed one-day matches this year.

With Staffordshire also having won both their championship games, the general feeling was that Dorset would have to produce something special to book their first ever date at Lord's.

Well, something special is what the Dean Park faithful of about 500 the biggest Dorset crowd since they beat Cumberland in the championship final at Chapel Gate in 2000 got.

Twenty-year-old Metcalfe was quite simply magnificent. And from the moment he had blitzed away Staffordshire's top order, plundering three wickets in six balls inside his opening two overs, it was game over.

Running in with tidy discipline from the Winton End, Metcalfe got plenty of swing off a flat track and his line and length was immaculate as he produced amazing figures of 10-4-9-5.

First to go was opener Chris Tranter, whose leading edge was caught at mid-on by Glyn Treagus.

Robert King, beaten for pace, and Richard Harvey, trapped leg before, followed off successive balls with Staffordshire on 13 before Kim Wilshaw left a delivery that sent his off-stump flying from the fourth ball of Metcalfe's third over.

He had grabbed four wickets from 13 balls and was on fire as Martin Ford kept the pressure on from the Town End with Staffordshire struggling on 24 for four.

Metcalfe, with four, and 18-year-old Broadstone youngster Zeeshan Ziggy' Arshad, with two, sent down six maidens in a 10-over spell to frustrate former England batsman Kim Barnett.

It was during this period that Metcalfe bagged his fifth wicket, Sam Seadon playing onto his stumps with the score on 32 for five.

When Barnett chipped an easy catch to Darren Cowley at point off Phil Lewis, Staffordshire were down and almost out on 57 for seven.

Lewis, Tom Hicks, Treagus and Ford cleaned up the tail after Arshad, only called up at 9am on the morning of the match in place of injured Dan Belt, had performed heroics by finishing with almost unbelievable figures of 7-3-8-0 in only his second senior Dorset appearance.

Staffordshire's miserly total of 95 was never going to seriously test the home side, although there was some anguish around the Dean Park boundary when Iain Carr removed Treagus and Steve Selwood off successive balls with Dorset's reply on 14.

But Tom Webley (23) and Peter Deakin (22 not out), who produced some diligent batting, weren't about to let a visit to Lord's escape them.

Then Darren Cowley (26 not out) ensured he would emulate his father Nigel, the ex-Hampshire star, by appearing at the home of cricket, with some big lusty blows to steer Dorset past their target with seven wickets to spare.

The next big match at Dean Park is on Thursday when Dorset Development XI host India Under-19s in a one-day game (start 11am).