Kent League Match - 100 Overs

New Ash Green (4 points) 157 all out (46.4 overs)
Chestfield (16 points) 159-5 (49.3 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5 wickets.

New Ash Green 1st XI suffered a tough introduction to the Kent League with defeat to Chestfield in the first game of the season. Having lost the toss and been asked to bat the home side soon found the going tough with Australian batsman Ginn falling for 11. NAG lost wickets at regular intervals including a total of 5 LBW’s with only Vaughan John with 60 giving the visitors a tough time on the way to a disappointing 157 all out.

The NAG bowlers soon set about trying to retrieve the situation with Meehan and Stuart making the crucial early double break through. All the Ash Green bowlers stuck to their task and starved the Chestfield batsman of runs for long periods. Hewitt, Sumner and Mayers joined Meehan and Stuart in taking a wicket apiece as an unlikely victory looked possible. However, the luck just wasn’t with the hosts and despite a number of close decisions they couldn’t make the breakthrough to expose the Chestfield tail. It wasn’t until the 50th over of their reply when Chestfield finally struck the winning runs.

Sidcup II v New Ash Green II
Saturday 10th May 2003

Kent League Match - 100 Overs

New Ash Green (5 points) 230 all out (44 overs)
Sidcup (16 points) 234-4 (41.1 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 6 wickets.

With possibly the strongest batting line up in New Ash Green 2nd XI history, but not a great deal of bowling, Pete Burke was presented with something of a dilemma on winning the toss by default (Sidcup had no umpire) on what looked like an excellent batting pitch. In the end he took the bold option and chose to bat.

With Gary Browning (who had not had a net or a game this year) looking all at sea in edging 2 then being bowled in the first over the decision to bat looked like it might not pay off. Matthew Quantrill looked in good touch, but immediately after a second crunching cover drive for 4 he jammed his bat in the ground and was caught and bowled for 14. Rob Jansen started hesitantly, but was beginning to blossom when he got out LBW for 25, and at 65-3 a big score looked as if it might be beyond NAG. However Paul Barber, coming in at number 4, was looking a class above the rest, and Dominic Adolphe, though struggling a touch with his attacking shots, was playing well in support. They added 85 for the fourth wicket in reasonable time before Adolphe got himself in all sorts of trouble trying to wind up a big hit on the young leg spinner McCawley and being bowled for 27 while falling flat on his back! ("A good batsman never loses his stumps, man.")

With a solid base and plenty of batting to come New Ash Green now needed to accelerate, and in Neil Howick they had just the man for the job. Having defended his first ball he hit his next 4 balls for 6, 4, 4 and 4, and although he slowed down slightly after that he raced to 37 in just 18 balls before being caught in the deep. By now NAG had moved on to 195 -5 with 15 overs still to come, and a score well in excess of 250 looked well within their reach. From here on, though, they were careless in their batting. Paul Barber ended an excellent innings being caught at mid on for 99, and both Hoddinotts and Paul Sumner were caught cheaply trying to be too aggressive against McCawley, who ended up with 6-70 in 11 overs. Pete Burke and Paul Rourk tried to salvage something from the collapse by at least batting out the overs, but Rourk was LBW to the last ball of the 44th over and NAG finished up not only well short of their potential total but also giving Sidcup an extra 6 overs in which to get the runs.

230 was still a good total, but on a good track with a fast outfield and limited bowling resources it was not nearly as good a score as NAG would have liked. Initially Pete Burke and Paul Sumner put pressure on the Sidcup openers, both of whom looked aggressive from the start. Both were dropped off Paul Sumner's bowling, both chances (one a caught and bowled chance and the other a thickish edge to the keeper) being only moderately hard ones, and those mistakes proved costly. The run rate was soon rising off both bowlers and the first change Paul Rourk as the aggressive shots began to pay off on the hard true wicket. The advent of Neil Howick's spin finally brought the first wicket at 90 and he had the other opener stumped shortly afterwards, but all the remaining batsmen continued to play in much the same way, going for their shots with great power. The ball often went in the air, and a few hard chances were missed - on another day wickets might have tumbled quickly. Enough were hit cleanly to the boundary, though, to ensure that Sidcup raced to a win well within the overs, with only another two wickets falling, including one for Kieron Hoddinott's very slow spin when the batsman wound up for a huge hit and was yorked by the second bounce of a ball which barely reached the stumps! Much of NAG's fielding was sloppy, with an apparent lack of effort from some and even at the end the chance of another bonus point was spurned when a catch was put down with just a few runs needed. New Ash Green were short of bowling, but more intelligent play and a more positive attitude in the field could have made a huge difference - even without more bowlers this side had the ability, it just needed all the team to apply itself.

Old Gravesendians v New Ash Green III
Saturday 10th May 2003

Central League Match - 40 Overs

Old Gravesendians 285-4
New Ash Green 113 all out
New Ash Green lost by 172 runs.

Old Gs were put into bat and the opening attack of Robin Wills and Alan Carter kept things tidy for a while, Robin managed to repeat the inswinging yorker from the previous week to send Mohan's off stump out of the ground and Alan Carter removed Reece for no score. At 17 for two things were looking good for Ash Green until a stand of 94 took the score to 111 for three. From this point Ash Green managed to drop Old Gs skipper Paul Chandler an amazing 5 times! Chandler made the most of his luck and was particularly harsh on poor Sam Wilson who was dispatched for 59 runs from his six overs (still cheaper than Flipper!) Chandler went on to score 115 from only 48 balls. Old Gs went on to declare at 285 for 4 from 35 overs.

Ash Greens reply was less than competitive and the Old Gs captain decided he hadn't done enough in the game already and opened the bowling himself. Whilst the bowling attack was fairly lame, the rain shower in between innings was enough to liven up the wicket and give the Ash Green line up a tougher test than was deserved. Only Andy Tutt provided any resistance before frustration got the better of him after scoring a solid 48. Jeremy Betts chipped in with a career best 22! but no other batsmen reached double figures as the Old Gs attack (assisted by umpire Phillips) dismissed Ash Green for 113.

New Ash Green v Beckenham Merlins
Sunday 11th May 2003

Friendly Match

Sadly it was the old Sunday story again. A lot of effort had gone into raising a Sunday side, and a reasonably competent XI of varying time-keeping ability assembled between the supposed meet time (1.15) and the arrival of Dominic Adolphe (2.30). During the whole of that time there was no sign of any opposition. Various phone calls ascertained that the match had been confirmed in January and produced no response from either of the two contact numbers available for Beckenham. Eventually a phone number was found for Beckenham's ground itself, and a very apologetic man explained that they had realised on Tuesday that they could not raise a side and had called the game off then. He promised to make enquiries as to why we hadn't been told, but it does look this time as if it wasn't an NAG cock up!

That didn't help the XI who were present, who had to put away all the equipment they had diligently got out, and retire to the bar (or in the case of some to the television lounge at Mr. Payne's exclusive boarding house) and eat and give away as much of the tea as they could manage.