POTTERNE skipper Neil Clark saluted a ‘solid’ team performance from his side as they comfortably saw off Minehead last weekend.

Sahan Wijerathne starred with five wickets, while Ollie Smith, Clark, Ed Young and Vibhor Yadav were all among the runs as Potterne won by 120 runs at the Grove.

“We weren’t too sure how the wicket was going to play because it had been prepared three weeks ago and had just been sitting there under a cover since then,” said Clark “But it wasn’t too bad on the day. We thought that 280 would be a good score but we went past that pretty easily.

“There wasn’t really a huge standout performance from the batters but it was solid all-round. We probably didn’t bowl that to start with but the spinners did some damage when they got in and Sahan got five wickets.

“We were one of the only sides not to play a game last weekend (Potterne’s trip to Chard was rained off) so that was a shame – we’ll have to try and beat the sides above us to get up there.”

The hosts were put in to bat and Minehead’s Tom Wright claimed three wickets but Smith (56 not out), Clark (47), Young and Yadav (both 46) all found their range as Potterne posted 326-9.

The visitors’ Wright (45) and Bradley Martin (44) offered resistance but Wijerathne hampered Minehead’s effort with his haul of five wickets for just 38 runs.

Jake Roberts also took 3-34 as the visitors were skittled for 206 in the 36th over.

Goatacre wicketkeeper Sam Parish stressed that there’s no reason for the club to be worried by their indifferent start to the campaign.

Goatacre lost for the second time in three matches at Thornbury on Saturday, as they meandered to 182 all out before seeing their hosts sneak home by three wickets with four overs to spare.

Parish said: “We could be sat here talking about three losses or we could be talking about two wins. There’s certainly no cause for concern or anything like that, having lost two out of the first three.

“This is the third year we’ve been in it and we know this is a competitive league and there are very rarely any sides who finish bottom by miles or who win it by miles.’’

Parish praised the batting of Jack Haines and Ed Kilbee at the top of the order but, following the latter’s dismissal, Goatacre went from 60-0 to 182 all out.

“We got off to a reasonable start and we haven’t kicked on. Jack batted superbly again, Ed Kilbee looked in better nick than he has done and was unfortunate the bowler’s held a one-handed, diving catch,” said Parish.

“We bowled quite well and we thought we didn’t get a great deal of luck on the day, in terms of not seeming to chip the ball into spaces when we were batting.

“In a tight game one wicket or a couple of wickets can completely change it.

“One of their guys, who got 20 or 30, hit one that went about 10 yards behind Gibbo (Craig Gibbens) at mid-off and there was another one that dropped just short of Jack at deep cover.

“If they’d have been five or 10 yards the other way, we’d have got two wickets in two overs and been in charge of the game.”

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