MINEHEAD suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday, losing by 74 runs away to Uphill Castle in the Somerset League Premier Division.

The hosts chose to bat on a lively-looking wicket, and that decision paid off early on as openers Winn and Chapman found the boundary with regularity, and helped by some woeful catching from the Minehead fielders they reached 50-0 from seven overs.

At this point stand-in captain Dan Bowditch brought himself into the attack and along with opener Ellis Taylor managed to stem the flow of runs.

Spin bowler Ian Buchanan them came on and claimed the first wicket, that of Winn for 46 with the score on 74 from 20 overs.

Bowditch then knocked over Chapman in his last over to finish with 1-23 from his nine overs.

However, that brought Jones and Bliss together at the crease and they set about wrestling back the momentum against Minehead’s change bowlers, both batsman finding runs easy to come by and Jones in particular clearing the boundary with ease.

With Bliss out for 32 to a good catch from keeper Gregg Howard, left hander Bail joined Jones and they continued to make Minehead pay for some poor bowling and fielding.

The took their team past the 200 mark with a partnership of 80 off nine overs before Jones was bowled by Gav Paviour for a destructive 70 from just 46 balls, including seven fours and four sixes.

Bail followed an over later with the score on 255, run out for 46 after a good throw from Frederick Wilson, and opening bowlers Paviour and Taylor came back into the attack with five overs to go and bowled with great accuracy.

They picked up wickets at regular intervals and Uphill lost their final five wickets for just 14 runs to leave them all out for 269. Minehead picked up full bowling bonus points, a feat that looked unlikely with five overs to, and Paviour ended with 4-62 and Taylor 2-25.

Minehead’s reply got off to a bad possible start when stand-in opener Dan Godfrey was bowled by off-spinner Bliss for just 4 and was quickly followed by fellow opener Buchanan, caught on the long on boundary for 7 off the same bowler.

Next to go was Alastair Harrison, brilliantly caught at short cover for 9, closely followed by Braden Taylor, caught at cover in the next over off pace bowler Cox.

When Bliss trapped Charlie Tudball LBW in the tenth over for just one, Minehead were five down for just 33 runs.

Bowditch and Wilson set about re-building the innings, playing conservatively whilst punishing the bad ball when possible, and they had moved the score on to 63 by the time Wilson hit left arm spinner Bail for a towering six then was clean-bowled just three balls later.

Bowditch, now joined by Howard, kept the scoreboard ticking along with regular boundaries, and his second six was enough to bring up his fifty under difficult circumstances.

Howard, after striking some boundaries of his own, was harshly adjudged LBW to home skipper Ward for 17 and replaced by Ellis Taylor, who continued his fine early season batting form with some aggressive strokes before gifting an easy catch off Matthews for 25.

The same bowler accounted for Paviour for a duck and Sean Meade for one to leave Minehead 195 all out, five runs short of maximum batting bonus points.

Bowditch ended unbeaten on 82, which included nine fours and three sixes, as his team were beaten by the better all-round team on the day.

Minehead travel to struggling Winscombe tomorrow (Saturday) hoping to make amends for a poor performance and get back to winning ways.

l The previous Saturday Minehead had a convincing 176-run home victory over Bagborough.

Batting first on an excellent wicket they racked up 324 for the loss of only two wickets.

Andrew Stevens had a captain’s knock of 124 and Bradon Taylor hit his maiden 100, and there were useful contributions from Ian Buchanan (43) and Dan Bowditch.

In reply, early wickets for Ellis Taylor and Jay Darrell put the visitors on the back foot, then Buchanan took five wickets to secure victory in front of a large crowd, with Bagborough all out for 148.