Outwood Youngsters set personal records

Two reports for the price of one this week as Outwood 2s beat firstly Shoreham and then Withyham.

Bottom-of-the-table Shoreham won the toss and put Outwood in to bat, giving the Outwood batsmen the chance to hit themselves into some form at the venue their 1st XI colleagues had scored 346 the previous week. At 22 for 3 on an amazingly green wicket (had they painted it?) things weren't going according to plan. However, Nat Hiscocks (74) and Rob Rigby (67) then combined to build a patient and well-crafted stand of 139. Rob's departure saw the arrival of Felix Teasdale who stepped up the pace with some very impressive clean hitting. His 68 in 42 balls included 8 fours and 3 sixes and was Felix's maiden league 50. Nick Briggs (31 in 29 balls) maintained the momentum with Outwood ending on 288 for 9, a considerable improvement on 22 - 3!

Outwood 2s are a mean bowling unit these days and although the wicket had dried out and wickets were hard to come by, so were runs in a fine opening spell by Marcus Malley and Dru Tunstall. The first 10 overs yielded only 30 runs and the second 10 only 38. At 68 for 2 in 20 overs Shoreham were never in the hunt. Eight bowlers were used in the attempt to prise out the Shoreham batsmen who ended on 175 for 7. Keith Hall was the most successful with 3 for 27 in 8 overs.

A week on and the opponents were Withyham, altogether a much tougher proposition after they beat us earlier in the season. Heavy overnight rain - the first for weeks - gave the pitch a green (more natural-looking) tinge and prompted the visitors to insert their hosts. Some loose bowling early on saw Outwood race to 30 off the first 3 overs but the bowlers soon found their range and batting became much more difficult with the ball stopping and lifting when it landed on the seam. After Paul Howard (17) departed injured early on, Marcus Malley and Keith Hall (32) proceeded to set the game up with a patient and watchful partnership which took us to 116 before Keith's dismissal - effectively the first wicket. This laid the foundation for a middle-order assault by Felix Teasdale (23 from 17) and Dru Tunstall (13 from 14) with the ever-present Marcus Malley notching up his first ever 100 in an excellent and near chanceless innings. We eventually reached 234 for 9 off our 40 overs, probably a rather better total than we realised at the time.

Once again our opening bowlers took charge, with Marcus (2 for 16) removing the dangerous David Munro for 1 and skipper Mike Berry for 15. He was having a good day! Withyham heads dropped when they realised that our change bowlers weren't giving anything away either, backed up by excellent ground fielding. Max Evans took 3 good catches as sub-fielder for the incapacitated Paul Howard and Withyham ended on 169 for 6 without ever really threatening our score. Alex Johnson battled manfully throughout for 92.