SKIPPER Chris Park is hoping his young Bournemouth side stays together after missing out on promotion to the top flight of the Southern Premier League.

Despite a resounding 10-wicket win over Sarisbury Athletic on Saturday, Lions failed to overhaul second-placed Basingstoke & North Hants on the final day.

Second may have been good enough for Lions to seal promotion, with champions Calmore rumoured to be unable to go up.

But with Bournemouth finishing third, Park was left to ponder a campaign that might have been.

He told the Daily Echo: “It’s just a shame we came close and did not manage to get over the line.

"But if you don’t play proper cricket in all the games, you don’t deserve to go up.

“The early-season inconsistency came back to haunt us, even though we finished the season strongly.

“Basingstoke beat us twice so, in hindsight, they probably deserve to go up.

“It’s just a case of keeping all our young guys together. Fingers crossed they will all stay together and want to play next year.

“We need to keep moving forward through the winter to hopefully get this promotion we are after. The young lads still have loads of room for improvement.

"With the experience they will gain, hopefully, we will gain the consistency we need as a side.”

With a chance of grasping second still in the balance at the start of the day, Bournemouth set to work from the outset in their league finale.

Simon Woodruff had Sarisbury opener Sam Floyd caught behind by Park without scoring off the first delivery of the game, after the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first.

And while Woodruff (2-11) picked up the wicket of Ricky Rawlins (1), eight wickets fell to spin as the home side skittled Sarisbury out for a miserly 54.

Dom Clutterbuck picked up 4-18 with wickets also coming the way of Jem Warner (2-16) and Rob Pack (2-6).

In reply, Bournemouth openers Ben Bridgen (28*) and Nick Park (23*) made light work of the chase.

Both finished unbeaten as Lions knocked the total off in just 11.1 overs.

And Park admitted his team’s emphatic victory had an impact on their celebrations to finish the campaign.

He added: “We were finished by about 3.30pm and it kind of left the end-of-season night out to be a long night, let me tell you!

“Sarisbury have had a really good second half of the season and to win so convincingly against them was a great way to finish.

“We were actually a couple of bowlers missing but what we call ‘team spin’ played to our strengths.”