SPIN star Jem Warner announced his Bournemouth return by claiming six wickets in their 61-run victory at Andover.
The talented leg-spinner produced a match-winning display as Lions recorded their eighth Southern League Division One triumph in 10 games.
Warner, left, who is available for the remainder of the season after returning from Durham University, showed all his tricks to outfox the hosts at London Road. He returned match figures of six for 31 from seven-and-a-half overs.
Skipper Chris Park said: “It was a very good spell and was great to have him back. As a leg-spinner, it’s just something completely different.
“He is getting better with age and bowls his variations at the right times. Whether it’s his googly, quicker ball or his leg-spinner itself, he bowled them all really nicely.
“As captain and wicketkeeper, sometimes I call for them. We have that relationship now where we can assess when the good time is to bowl a quicker ball or a googly.
“He got three wickets with his googly and one with his quicker ball. With Rob Pack bowling nicely at the other end, the two of them did not offer many bad balls and the pressure built.”
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Bournemouth were restricted to a modest 207-7. Luke Webb (56) continued his impressive form to top score for the visitors, while there were also important knocks from opener Tom West (43) and all-rounder Ed Denham (34).
Andover skipper Matt Hooper (4-49) was the pick of the hosts’ bowling attack with Mike Adams (2-52) offering support.
Andover looked to have put the game in the balance having reached 128-5, but after Denham (2-28) had Hooper (22) trapped leg before, Warner did a ruthless job of cleaning up the tail to help bowl out Andover for 146. Left-arm spinner Pack (2-23) also added to his impressive wickets tally for the campaign.
“It was a good, solid team performance,” added Park. “Credit to Andover, they bowled quite well and put our batters under a little bit of pressure in not giving them too many bad balls.
“We thought we should have got 250 and thought we may have been 25 runs short, so knew we had to bowl well. Ed Denham struck early in getting rid of Asher Hart and the pitch then started to turn, which came into our hands a little. We dropped a couple of catches, which was disappointing but we will go again and we need to keep winning.”
Victory kept Bournemouth top of the pile ahead of Sarisbury Athletic, who tied their clash at Liphook & Ripsley. Both sides posted totals of 276 for eight to earn 15 points apiece.
Dan Rose, Bournemouth Echo.
The talented leg-spinner produced a match-winning display as Lions recorded their eighth Southern League Division One triumph in 10 games.
Warner, left, who is available for the remainder of the season after returning from Durham University, showed all his tricks to outfox the hosts at London Road. He returned match figures of six for 31 from seven-and-a-half overs.
Skipper Chris Park said: “It was a very good spell and was great to have him back. As a leg-spinner, it’s just something completely different.
“He is getting better with age and bowls his variations at the right times. Whether it’s his googly, quicker ball or his leg-spinner itself, he bowled them all really nicely.
“As captain and wicketkeeper, sometimes I call for them. We have that relationship now where we can assess when the good time is to bowl a quicker ball or a googly.
“He got three wickets with his googly and one with his quicker ball. With Rob Pack bowling nicely at the other end, the two of them did not offer many bad balls and the pressure built.”
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Bournemouth were restricted to a modest 207-7. Luke Webb (56) continued his impressive form to top score for the visitors, while there were also important knocks from opener Tom West (43) and all-rounder Ed Denham (34).
Andover skipper Matt Hooper (4-49) was the pick of the hosts’ bowling attack with Mike Adams (2-52) offering support.
Andover looked to have put the game in the balance having reached 128-5, but after Denham (2-28) had Hooper (22) trapped leg before, Warner did a ruthless job of cleaning up the tail to help bowl out Andover for 146. Left-arm spinner Pack (2-23) also added to his impressive wickets tally for the campaign.
“It was a good, solid team performance,” added Park. “Credit to Andover, they bowled quite well and put our batters under a little bit of pressure in not giving them too many bad balls.
“We thought we should have got 250 and thought we may have been 25 runs short, so knew we had to bowl well. Ed Denham struck early in getting rid of Asher Hart and the pitch then started to turn, which came into our hands a little. We dropped a couple of catches, which was disappointing but we will go again and we need to keep winning.”
Victory kept Bournemouth top of the pile ahead of Sarisbury Athletic, who tied their clash at Liphook & Ripsley. Both sides posted totals of 276 for eight to earn 15 points apiece.
Dan Rose, Bournemouth Echo.
