SKIPPER Richard Morris had mixed feelings after Bashley had made heavy weather of seeing off Hampshire Academy by two wickets at the BCG.

Morris was delighted his men had maintained their 100 per cent winning start to the season – but disappointed they had frittered some crucial bonus points.

A middle-order slump saw Bashley lose seven wickets for just 22 runs, the collapse reducing them from 86 for one to 108 for eight in pursuit of the Academy’s paltry 111.

Sean Terry (57) had put Bashley on course for a facile victory before his team-mates inadver-tently conspired to undo all his good work (Ryan McMurray 3-12, Jack Sheppard 3-36).

Morris said: “Bearing in mind we were 86 for one at one stage, it was pretty disappointing to end up scraping over the line at eight down.

“We had a mad 30 minutes where we lost a procession of wickets. The league is won or lost on how many points you get and, although we won the game, we missed out on a fair few bonus points.

“Hopefully, we will learn a few lessons moving forward.”

Bowlers dominated proceedings throughout with Kevin Nash (3-17) making early inroads as Bashley reduced the young Royals to 75 for six before Ryan Scott (26) and Sheppard (15) rallied. The visitors then suffered a collapse of their own, losing their final four wickets for just six runs (Simon Ridley 2-13, Ross Grierson 2-13, Simon Watkins 2-23).

Morris added: “Sean Terry looked in good touch so that was encouraging for the rest of the season.

“In the same breath, although we have got one guy who is very talented and going well, we have got to make sure the other batters around him are contributing as well. It is about taking ownership and everybody stepping up and taking responsibility.

“There will come a time when we will come up against a slightly stronger team and we won’t be able to afford to have a collapse like we did against the Academy.

“Our bowling and fielding were outstanding and it was a real team effort in the fact the wickets were shared.

“There was good intensity in the field and we stuck to our plan well. At the start of the season, if someone had offered us two wins out of two, we would have taken it.”