2s win at Outwood

After losing two weeks in a row against teams placed in the top 3, Bearsted 2s travelled to top of the table Outwood, hoping to see a reverse of the heavy defeat suffered against the same opposition in the home fixture.

After employing a complicated calling strategy (devised by Harry Slevin’s Dad), the skipper won the toss, and elected to bowl first. Once the 11 had finally arrived after negotiating the M25 (surely a coincidence that Haggart and Barker were the last two there?), the 2s took the field in confident mood.

The opening spells of bowling from Jack Feehan (1-10) and Ben Lush (3-24) from 9 overs each, were probably the best that either has bowled this season and put the opposition into a position they never recovered from. Added to a direct hit run out from John Haggart, Outwood were reduced to 34/5 from the opening exchanges.

Harry Slevin bowled well without any luck, as he went wicketless in 7 overs. Dave Latter (2-28) and Steve Horrocks (3-43) combined to bowl Outwood out in the 40th over for 130. As excellent as the bowling was, the bowlers were backed up by the fielding, with Ben Lush taking two sharp chances off his own bowling, Andy West holding three and Simon Barker getting two stumpings to go with the runout from Haggart.

Having only managed 120 when we played them earlier in the season, chasing 130 could have been a challenging ask. It looked that way when Tim Croom was out in the second over of our reply, but that only served to get Andy West to the crease. Andy started quickly and didn’t let up, as he scored 66 off 51 balls including 9x4s and 2x6s, breaking the back of the run chase. Tim Lush was out for 16, before Chris Filmer (22*) and Simon Barker (18*) saw the 2s home in 27 overs.

The result leaves Bearsted 2s 4th in the table with three games left to play. Next week sees us on The Green against Four Elms.