HAVING once bowled a wide in an inter-league bowl-out, I feel the pain of any side dumped out of the First XI Cup last weekend in cricket's version of a penalty shootout.

It's no way to decide the outcome of a game, especially when you lose, and in an ideal world it shouldn't be needed.

I understand both Prestwich and Egerton fell foul of a bowl-out, so there you have the top two teams in the Premier Division out of the competition.

It is a bit puzzling why we don't have any reserve dates for the cup pencilled into the fixture schedule when we have so many free Sundays, and maybe that is something the league could look at.

But both sides will have known the rules, that there had to be a winner on the day, going into the games.

So there can be no complaints from those that lose a game in this way, no matter how much it hurts.

What might be a good idea in future is to practice bowling straight, and no that is not a dig.

Non-cricketers might be quite surprised to hear that the scores in most bowl-outs are relatively low.

You often get a 1-0 or a 2-1 - and that is after all 11 players on both sides have had a go.

It is not like you are only bowling at one stump. You get all three to aim at, and a wicketkeeper behind to scoop misses attempts.

It might seem like all you would have to do is shorten your run-up, slow down your action and just plump for accuracy.

But what seems to work best is doing what you would normally do, whatever comes naturally to you.

The fact is though that most bowlers don't practice bowling wicket to wicket, and that's what is needed on a bowl-out.

It seems that while Prestwich are leading the way in the Premier Division, their cup conquerors Heywood have got the most accurate bowlers after winning their bowl-out 6-2.

Getting six hits is pretty much unheard of, so fair play to them.