7:35pm Sunday 5th July 2009
By Neil Perrett
BOURNEMOUTH banished their batting demons to make light work of seeing off Division One rivals Hampshire Academy by eight wickets at Chapel Gate.
An unbroken third-wicket stand of 120 between Nick Park (32) and Simon Watkins (87) saw second-placed Bournemouth narrow the gap on leaders Havant.
Dave Kidner (2-17), Watkins (2-31) and Ed Denham (2-35) helped restrict the Academy to 133 for eight from 59 overs in a rain-reduced contest.
And although Mark House and Martin Miller both went cheaply, Park and Watkins (16 fours, 76 balls) ensured there would be no collapse as Bournemouth coasted home from 30.1 overs.
Bournemouth captain Craig de Weymarn said: “It was a good result and everything went to plan. In the grand scheme of things, we came through relatively unscathed and went about it in the right way.
“We put the ball in the right areas and the conditions helped us at the start. We managed to get their top four out and then we were into the more youthful players in their side.
“They are all talented players but we had a bit of experience on our side.
“They got off to a good start and it was always going to do a bit with the new ball. But as soon as we were over that, we knew we could put a partnership together to win us the match and that’s how it proved.
“By his own admission, I think Parky (Nick Park) would probably say he hasn’t scored as many runs for us as he would have liked this season so it was good for him to be there at the end.”
Although victory saw Bournemouth edge to within two points of table-toppers Havant, de Weymarn added: “There are still eight games to go and we’ve only just gone past the halfway stage. We are certainly not getting ahead of ourselves and will see where we are when it comes to the last few games.”
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