Doctors 105 for 6

Pacemakers 110 for 3

Doctors were surprisingly inserted but despite the excellent Kings Hall pitch their top order batsman inexplicably found it difficult to time their shots and against the tidy line and length bowling of M.Wright (2-15) and M.Short made a sedate start punctuated by the regular fall of wickets. John Ogle (14) looked in good form but hooked Short (1-16) into the hands of deep midwicket. James Powell (17) played some handsome shots many of which went straight to the fielders which provoked an impatient heave at Jason Symmons (1-21) and consequent loss of his leg stump. The key bowling performance was a teasing spell of off spin by Tim Webster (1-21) which included the premium wicket of Graham Fergusson, well stumped by keeper H.Farrington. The only Doctors batsman to dominate the bowling was David Dance (37 n.o.) but his fine innings of straight driving and cutting was played as a lone hand and towards the end of the innings he was frustratingly denied the strike.

With the adamantine batting surface and short boundaries Doctors total of 105 seemed well below par. For the first 3 overs the home batsmen could hardly lay bat on ball and Doctors hopes were raised but in the fourth Australian Symmons launched a ferocious attack which was to take the match out of the visitors’ grasp. Surviving a chance to long on which was spilled over the boundary his quickfire innings of 36 was eventually ended when he was bowled by Peter Reed (1-19). John Down and Ben Rich bowled well and tightly without any luck but Pacemakers were always ahead of the clock and N.Preston (30) and Farrington (28) were able to ease their side into a winning position. There was a flicker of optimism when Joe Lee (1-16) and James Powell (1-16) struck back but two more dropped chances effectively snuffed out any chances of a Doctors revival.