KINGSWOOD hosted old touring friends Pencombe from Hereford in a close game on a beautiful day.

Having sent their young advance guard two days early to sample the delights of Bristol, Pencombe`s elders arrived caught up on Sunday and quickly set about the Kingswood attack.

Not withstanding the early loss of Terry Thomas to a superb slip catch by the athletic Mark Thomas off Moeen Ollie`s off spin, Owen Thomas (57), Steve Barrett (40), Al Davies (85no) and Steve Brotherwood (35no) ran up 252-5 off their 40 overs.

This was a tough ask for Kingswood but skipper Ben Foxwell`s 84, Kevin Morgan`s 53 and Angus McCubbin`s 28 kept the side on the rate with wickets in hand, only to be routed by two Pencombe youngsters.

Harry James (5-24) and Luke Hadley (3-24) ripped out the rest of Kingswood`s side with only Ollie (11) reaching double figures with his slip drives to third man.

With the tenth wicket going on the last ball of the 40th over, Kingswood`s 229 all out was just 25 runs short of victory.