HOOK and Newnham Basics' batting let them down on Saturday as they lost their opening Southern Premier League division three clash at home to Purbrook by 123 runs.

It had looked so promising for the home side when the visitors were 137-5 after 40 overs but some late big hitting saw Purbrook finish on 220-8 from their allotted 50 overs.

The home side got off to a great start, scoring 50 off the first 10 overs, but some tight bowling saw the home side shot out for 97.

The afternoon started really well for Hook as Purbrook's South African Wilhelm Prozesky was caught by a brilliant one-handed catch by Stewart Rivers off the bowling of Ben Allnutt.

The home bowlers looked on top as Purbrook reached 63-2 after 20 overs and it took them to the 29th over to bring up the 100.

Ian Hunter started to open his shoulders and skied a ball which looked certain to get him out but a mix-up between Rivers and Graham Buckingham saw neither take the catch.

Hunter went on to to top-score in the match with 60, with Wayne Musselwhite the next best score with 33.

He was run out after an excellent throw in by Hook's new South African Lloyd Moore, allowing Buckingham plenty of time to remove the bails.

In the end the visitors finished on 220-8, with Rivers the top bowler with 3-38.

Skipper Keith Lovelock and Buckingham set about the task with relish. Lovelock showed again he is one of the biggest hitters in the local game, as a straight six brought up the 50 partnership in just 10 overs.

Lovelock was caught for 43 with the score on 66 and after that nobody was able to get after the bowlers and the run rate increased before they were all out for 97 with extras the only other score to get into double figures.

Lovelock said: "I thought we did really well in the first half of the game to limit them to 220. But this is a tough league and there are no give me games."