Max Evans skippers the 2nds to victory

Another young Outwood player - Max Evans - made his debut as 2nd XI skipper and led the side confidently to victory while Ashley Horsfall also looked good on his 2nd XI debut. Having been asked to bat, the home side started well with the openers posting 62 for the first wicket. Lucas Evans in particular struck the ball cleanly while James Malley at the other end was his usual solid self, accumulating runs steadily to top-score with 59. Otford bowled tidily for the most part and runs were not easy to come by. The hundred came up in the 24th over before Dru injected some urgency with a lively 24 in 29 balls including 3 consecutive fours. Most of the other batsmen contributed double figures as Outwood looked to up the tempo towards the end and the innings closed on 200 for 8.

Otford got off to a flier with 27 coming from the first 4 overs, several of them off the edge to Third Man and Fine Leg. Dru broke the opening partnership followed by two more quick wickets from Max and at 49 for 4 Otford were a long way from victory. Max shuffled his bowlers well and wickets were shared around with four bowlers taking 2 a piece. Ellis grabbed two good catches at cover, as well as a wicket to finish off the innings in the 25th over - Outwood winning by 89 runs.

A comfortable victory, admittedly against the bottom side in the Division. Outwood were never really stretched which may account for some of the slightly sloppy bowling and fielding at times. The 14 wides and 22 byes is a source of some concern as we cannot afford to give this many runs away against stronger opposition. Extras were in fact top scorer for Otford. We can only hope (and expect) that concentration levels will be somewhat higher in the crucial games to come.