CHRIS Park says Bournemouth "can look back on the season as a positive" after bringing their campaign to a close on Saturday.

With Southern Premier League safety already secured, Park offered the opportunity to some of his younger players for the trip to Alton.

But it was senior duo Adam Davies (60) and Park (47no) who top scored as the Lions set the hosts a target of 231 for victory.

And Alton eased to victory by seven wickets with 7.1 overs to spare to leapfrog Bournemouth in the table, leaving Park's men second-from-bottom having won five and averaged 10.69 points from their 17 completed games this season.

Discussing the campaign as a whole, captain Park told the Daily Echo: "I think we can look back on the season as a positive. There's been four or five games this year that we've been very, very close in winning, which is really, really positive.

"Maybe next year we'll turn those losses or draws into victories, which will make a massive, massive difference.

"But overall a positive season and a learning season as well for quite a lot of the young players for Bournemouth, who had never played Premier League cricket."

He added: "The last couple of games we changed the side around a little bit and played a few players from the second and third teams that we wanted to have a look at for future reference really to see where they are regarding first-team standard.

"It was disappointing to finish with three losses in a row, but at the same time it was a bit of a learning curve for two or three players that were involved."

Luke Webb (24), Tom Robinson (24) and Simon Woodruff (27) supported the top knocks from Davies and Park as Bournemouth closed on 230 for six at the Jubilee Playing Fields.

In reply, opener Dan Harris led the Alton charge with a sublime knock of 114 not out from 105 deliveries. Park utilised eight bowlers to try and break the resistance, including himself for a rare spell with the ball, but the home side eased to the win.

"We probably left 20 runs out there," said Park.

"I think 250 would've been a competitive score. With the bowling attack we had and being the end of the season, it was a little bit out of reach."

On bowling the last over himself, the skipper added: "Dan Harris is an old friend from Northampton that I used to play with for six or seven years, so it was a little bit of end of season banter.

"Having relinquished the wicketkeeping gloves for the last couple of games, it was nice to just roll my arm over and get myself in the Southern League bowling stats!"