Dorset Dolphins Season Review 2019
Dorset’s preparations for the 2019 Southern Region League Cricket Season began in January 2019 with weekly strength and fitness training indoors at a school in Poole. The team use the cold winter months to practice the key skills for cricketers. Bowling actions were tweaked, foot placement was investigated and batting movements were honed.
The Dolphins are always looking to improve their squad and this season saw Richard “Burt” Burt join the team. Burt has been involved in Visually Impaired sport for years, representing his country in downhill skiing events. Burt plays as a ‘total’ which means that he will wear a blindfold.
The Dolphins finished last season in 4th place in the Southern Regional League and were looking to improve upon this position this year. Dorset began the season at home to Surrey, a match they have lost in previous years. Surrey were put into bat by Dorset. A good fielding performance from Dorset meant that early wickets fell and Surrey were kept to a score of 206 runs for the loss of 7 wickets off 28 overs. That meant that Dorset only had 24 overs to beat that score. 50s from Dorset’s Tim McKenzie and Ben Williams helped the Dolphins to a score of 191 for the loss of two wickets off 24 overs. This meant that Dorset gained a winning draw as they had scored a higher average of runs in their overs.
Winning draws continued to be the order of the season for Dorset with the Dolphins travelling away to Berkshire. McKenzie and Captain Steve Bailey scored an unbeaten 75 and 50 respectively. Dorset finished their 26 overs with a huge score of 244 runs. Berkshire could not match Dorset’s scoring rate and finished the match with only 110 runs scored, securing the winning draw for Dorset.
The Dolphin’s attention switched to the Regional Twenty20 cup with a trip to play London Metro. The Dolphins had never won a cup game in many years of trying. However, this was about to change. Dorset were put into bat by Metro. They started scoring slowly but picked up the pace midway through the innings. McKenzie and Williams continued their fine seasons with an unbeaten 51 and 35 respectively. The Dolphins finished with 154 runs. Metro are a fine batting team so Dorset knew that they had to field aggressively, to not allow any easy runs. Metro batted well and were scoring the runs required. However with five overs to go, the runs came less frequently. It came down to the final ball, Metro needed three to win; they only ran two and Dorset won the match.
This previous win set up a semi-final against Gloucester. The Growlers went into bat first. They played aggressively, taking every advantage they could and finished their 20 overs with a respectable 177 runs. Dorset started well and McKenzie scored the 51 runs that required him to retire. It came down the final over with Dorset requiring a huge 18 runs. They scored 11 runs which meant that they lost by 7. The Dolphins would have to wait another year to lift the trophy.
Dorset switched their focus back to the league with games against Metro and Gloucester. Dorset knew that positive results against their opponents could see them lift their first league title. Both games ended with Dorset picking up two more winning draws.
Unfortunately this was not enough to win the league. Surrey gained 55 points to Dorset’s 54. This was a good season for the Dolphins with a 2nd place league finish and a semi-final appearance in the cup. Hopefully they will manage to progress one step further in each competition next year.
After the end of a competitive season, Dorset hosted a fun day at their home ground of Poole Park against the friends of Bournemouth Blind Society. BBS are great supporters of the Dolphins and a sunny Sunday in August was a perfect day for cricket. The Dolphins batted first against a strong bowling attack from BBS with Andy Hollingsworth, Ben Williams and Stephen James all scoring the twenty runs that led to retirement in this game. BBS then batted. In the second half of their innings some of their team went into bat wearing Sim-Specs, glasses that replicate a variety of visual impairments. The wickets began to tumble. It was not a day where runs and wickets mattered though. Members of the Dolphins brought their children along, who played a part in the match. Great fun was had by all and it was a fitting way to finish a great season.
If you would like to know more about how to get involved with the Dolphins, search for ‘Dorset Dolphins cricket’ on Facebook or Google.
