MINEHEAD suffered their second successive loss in the Somerset County League Premier Division when they went down by five wickets away to Middlezoy on Saturday.

After being asked to bat, they got off to a bad start when captain Andrew Stevens was caught at gully for a duck in the second over, and it was clear from the nature of the dismissal that runs would be hard to come by on the surface provided.

So it proved as Braden Taylor was joined by Alastair Harrison and they had to battle hard to survive a mixture of good bowling and poor conditions.

As they spent more time at the crease the runs started to come more freely, Harrison in particular playing the short ball well as he brought up his half-century.

However, he was removed shortly after passing his milestone, stumped off the bowling of Peppard for a well-compiled 56.

Another quick wicket brought Brad Martin in to accompany Taylor, who reached his half-century a couple of overs later.

The pair began to up the run-rate with some good running and clean hitting before both fell in quick succession, Taylor for a controlled 71 and Martin for 18.

Minehead’s middle and late order struggled against some good bowling towards the end of the innings and all, apart from Jay Darrell (11no), fell for single figures.

They were all out for 209 with two overs to spare - an under-par score but a defendable one on a wicket offering more than a little assistance to the bowlers.

The Middlezoy chase started with opening bowlers Ellis Taylor and Jay Darrell bowling with great accuracy, and the latter had opener Purchase LBW for just two to another ball which misbehaved off the surface.

Fellow opener Troman and new batsman Lacey then set about seeing off the new ball with runs coming very sporadically until Bowditch, after a string of dot balls, drew a mistake from Lacey as he dragged on for 35.

That brought Musgrave to the crease and he wasted no time in imposing himself on the Minehead bowlers with a couple of crisp boundaries early on.

Just when the hosts looked to be gaining control of the run chase, Bowditch managed to force a leading edge form the bat of Troman, having him caught and bowled for a patient 45 in his last over to finish with 2-29.

Martin (2-46), bowling from the opposite end, then clean-bowled Keith for ten and had Dillow caught behind for one to leave the batting team on 170-5, still needing 40 runs for victory.

Musgrave, now joined by skipper Barnard (18no), decided to take matters into his own hands and with some powerful hitting and good running the the score passed 200 and a towering six from Musgrave (64no) saw his team across the line with 12 balls to spare.

Minehead host Street tomorrow (Saturday) hoping to re-discover their early season form going into the second half of the season.