PARLEY hot-shot Toby Holmes and Merley Cobham goal machine Luke Stone look set to duel for the Dorset Premier League golden boot after boosting their respective tallies on Saturday.

Holmes extended his lead at the top of the charts when he plundered a five-timer in high-flying Parley's incident-packed and goal-laden 10-3 victory over Tintinhull.

His haul against the shell-shocked Tinmen made it 33 for the season and saw Holmes edge three ahead of Stone who hit four in Merley Cobham's 6-1 triumph at bottom-placed Sturminster Marshall.

Spectators at Tintinhull could have been excused for swapping their matchday programmes for scorecards as Parley ran riot in a contest which included no fewer than four penalties.

Dan Hiscock opened the floodgates in the third minute and made it 3-0 after Holmes had registered the first of his personal quintet.

Holmes added his second and Parley's fourth before Matt Newbery successfully converted the first of the spot kicks on the stroke of half-time.

In-form striker Holmes completed his hat-trick when he netted a penalty seven minutes after the restart before Joe Smith netted from the spot to get the Tinmen up and running.

However, a John Cook effort coupled with Holmes's fourth saw Parley ease 8-1 in front with 20 minutes remaining before Gary Mountford struck to make it 8-2.

As play quickly switched to the opposite end, Josh Pratt got in on the act to add Parley's ninth with Smith netting the fourth and final penalty to make it 9-3 seven minutes from time.

Fittingly, Holmes had the final say when he completed the scoring in the 84th minute to put the finishing touches to one of the most extraordinary scorelines in the history of the competition.

Meanwhile, Stone's exploits laid the foundations for Merley to maintain pole position, the prolific marksman bagging all four of his goals - including a 17-minute hat-trick - during the first half.

And although Callum Parsley reduced the arrears for the hosts, second-half goals from Shaun Steer and Dave Wrixton wrapped up a comfortable victory for the leaders.

Merley boss Ollie Cherrett said: “Potentially, it could have been a tricky game so I was pleased with the attitude of all involved following a couple of poor results.

“The most important thing was to get back to winning ways but we did it with some style as well. Luke Stone showed his quality and, along with Shaun Steer, who was making his debut, caused problems for the Stur defence.

"Hopefully, we can get back-to-back victories to keep the pressure on Ham Rec.”