BEXHILL MISS OUT ON 2ND WIN

Bexhill were unable to reach Roffey's target of 187, falling just 11 runs short.

Batting at number nine, captain Steve Phillimore contributed 41 in his first innings since badly bruising a finger and next man in Dave Munro added 24 as the visitors fell agonisingly 11 runs short.

The defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Bexhill as, for the second week in succession, they failed to chalk up their second win of the campaign when in prime position to do so.

A performance as tireless as it was tremendous with the ball from Aussie Peter Lewis (4-38), Matthew Blackman (2-60) and Mark Nightingale (2-38) restricted the hosts to what should have been an inadequate total.

Phillimore couldn't mask his frustration. He said: "It was disappointing - we could have won it. We are just lacking that little bit extra to win games.

"Their captain could not believe we were bottom of the league. We played well right from ball one, in the field in particular. They said we were better than a lot of the sides they had played."

Roffey won the toss on a sweltering afternoon and chose to bat - but paid the price when Lewis quickly got stuck in, taking three wickets off his first two overs, including two splendid catches from Mark Roughley.

Simon Shivnarain (49), P. Hutchinson (30) and J. Banner (25 no) helped Roffey recover but the batsmen found it hard going against the Bexhill attack although dropped catches cost Bexhill dearly.

Although the visitors' early batsmen got in, no-one could make a major score as Kiwi spinner Jefferson made good use of a bouncing, turning wicket, and soon had Bexhill in trouble at 89-7.

Victory was snatched from their grasp by what they considered an appalling umpiring decision, and they were left to ponder the dropped catches that prevented them sewing up a game they dominated.