2nds winning run comes to an end

Pembury won the toss and entrusted their strong batting line-up to take the attack to Outwood. After a couple of uncharacteristically loose early overs, Marcus Malley and Keith Hall settled in to a good rhythm to make Pembury work very hard for their runs. Guy Bignell and Ellis Peacock continued the good work but Pembury's patience meant they always had wickets in hand and this allowed them to launch a strong attack later in the innings with Outwood missing some key young fielders to resist the onslaught. Mainstay of the Pembury innings of 253 for 6 was Andrew Dawes with a fine 135 off 114 deliveries.

Outwood got off to a flyer in reply with Marcus Malley (12) and Nat Hiscocks (57) punishing the early short-pitched bowling. Nat was timing the ball beautifully until he had to rush off to a wedding party at which time Keith (65) and John Hall (33) took up the baton. Pembury's change bowlers were much tighter and manage to put Outwood behind the required run rate of over 6. Some brilliant running between the wickets by James Malley (16) and Lucas Evans (8) kept hopes alive briefly but Outwood eventually ended up just 20 runs short in a brave run chase. We now need to beat Pembury in next week's return encounter to secure promotion.