ROWLEDGE gave another woeful batting display and fell 96 runs short of Bournemouth’s 240-8 at Chapel Gate, slumping to a sixth straight defeat in Division One of the Southern Electric Cricket League.

Rowledge’s next two matches are against the bottom two sides and decent results are vital if they are to maintain their Division One status.

Bournemouth chose to bat and openers Andy Hayward and Luke Matthews did a fine job in seeing off the new ball, although Alex Bloomfield was unfortunate that a couple of edges didn’t carry through to the catchers behind the wicket.

Matthews was the more aggressive of the two, but a beauty from Richard Forbes hit the top of off-stump and then a quicksilver stumping by Ben Wish off Forbes accounted for Hayward.

Young New Zealander Josh Finnie looked a class act, particularly strong off his legs, and quickly went about finding the boundary.

Rowledge did well to pick up a couple of wickets at the other end. David Lloyd brought back Bloomfield, mainly in an attempt to get the overseas player early. Finnie remained positive and largely untroubled, but Bloomfield did get Ryan Wiltshire caught and bowled as he fended off a well-directed short ball. Lloyd then picked up Michael Kitson who chipped to mid-wicket.

The match-winning partnership for Bournemouth between Finnie (86) and Jake Hurley (40) followed as they gave the Rowledge fielders the runaround on a hot day before a few late wickets gave the spinners some belated reward.

In reply, Rowledge lost Ricky Yates in the third over, caught behind off Kitson. And when Bloomfield was taken at slip off Matt Jones, the visitors were on the back foot at 30-2.

Will Davies (24) and Tom Gleave (31) led a mini-recovery with a stand of 45, but Rowledge were falling further behind the clock.

The introduction of Finnie’s off-spin put the game firmly in Bournemouth’s hands. Davies swiped a short ball straight to mid-off, while Gleave and Ian Metcalfe were both adjudged leg before to leave Rowledge 90-5.

Lloyd and Sam Moseley tried to get things back on course, but with a climbing run-rate against accurate bowling it wasn’t long before Robert Pack and Andy Woodward polished off the tail. Rowledge were all out for 144, with seven overs remaining.