Kent League Match - 100 Overs

New Ash Green (20 points) 236-6 (50 overs)
Offham (5 points) 188 all out (41 overs)
New Ash Green won by 48 runs.

On yet another blazing hot day, Offham won the toss and asked NAG to bat first on a good looking wicket - having achieved all of their 4 victories chasing scores with their long batting line up it was no surprise that the visitors decided to chase.

With the regular opening bowler Neil Scott arriving just as the game started, NAG’s first wicket pair had the opportunity to play themselves in against the more friendly Offham medium pacers. Cox carried on from last week timing the ball from the very start as he and Klus made good progress with few alarms in the opening overs.

It wasn’t until Scott’s introduction after 10 overs that some life was extracted from the hard wicket. Having posted 50 for the first wicket for the second successive match Klus was the first to fall for 15 Scott taking the catch off the very tidy bowling of Blackburn with the score on 58.

This brought Kevin Ginn to the crease who made his intentions clear by launching a huge six over the square leg boundary. With Cox playing majestically and racing to his 50 a large NAG total looked on the cards. However having survived a chance first from the bowling of Scott, Ginn was deceived in the flight by Taylor, bowled for 18. 94-2 soon became 94-3 as Vaughan John fell first ball – LBW to Taylor.

Vic Mayers combined with Cox to rebuild the innings and prevent further casualties against the threat of Taylor and Scott bowling in tandem. Having played their way through the difficult stage the partnership flourished as the scoreboard picked up pace. As the second century partnership of the season approached a more significant century was reached when Cox drove down the ground to bring up a superbly played 100.

With 7 wickets in hand and just 6 overs left both batsman went for their shots with the ball flying to all parts and even the accurate Taylor being made to pay in his final over. Cox finally fell for 121, though Mayers continued the assault bringing up his 50 before finally holding out to deep midwicket for 55. Hurst, Duke and then Burke played out the final overs leaving Offham a daunting 237 required for victory.

With Cox and Mayers understandably tired after their heroics in the heat, Ginn and Sumner took the new ball. Ginn struck immediately – finding plenty of life with the new ball on the hard surface he had one first leap at Greenwood and then bowled him very next ball with one that hardly got above ankle height. However, this only served to bring the in-form Willis to the crease and he went for his shots from the start being particularly harsh on Ginn who struggled to find a consistent line and length. With Heine playing Sumner watchfully and putting the bad ball away, Offham were soon racing along at 5 an over.

With the score on to 65 after 13 overs, Ginn struck again – Heine (25) hitting a shortish ball straight to Stuart at point. However, the fall of the second wicket didn’t stop the flow of runs as Neil Scott joined Willis and played his normal attacking game. Giving all the bowlers a hard time the pair raced along at over 5 an over. With the quicker bowlers posing little threat as the ball softened, Hewitt together with the off-spin of Ginn represented NAG’s last throw of the dice.

Hewitt made the crucial break-through, Willis (70) trying to hammer one through mid-wicket succeeded only in skying to Cox at mid-on to give NAG a glimmer of hope. The real turning point came in Hewitt’s very next over when he found the under edge of Scott’s(51) outstretched bat and with Hurst taking a brilliant catch it was now well and truly game on with Offham 157-4.

With the black clouds hovering above all three results seemed possible, though the collapse continued in the very next over as Wratton hit a simple return catch to Ginn and Offham stuttered to 157-5. Hewitt and Ginn continued to turn the screw as the runs dried up but the wickets kept coming. Taylor failed to get on top of an attempted cut, but it took a spectacular one handed diving catch from Cox to complete the job and leave Offham in big trouble at 166-6 and now exposing the tail. Ginn didn’t have to wait long for his 5th victim, trapping Les England in front on the back leg to make it 166-7.

While Merv Brooker was at the crease Offham still had every chance of winning but he could only watch from the other end as Hewitt bowled an unplayable out-swinger bowling Rajaratnum round his legs, reducing Offham to 173-8. With Brooker fast running out of partners he made a final attempt to hit Offham to victory but having taken a bit of punishment Ginn made Brooker (30) his 6th victim firing his quicker ball through to leave him stranded down the wicket as Hurst smartly completed the stumping. Gittings came to the crease but became the 6th Offham batsman left with 0 by his name as he was adjudged LBW to leave Ginn with a 7 wicket haul and complete and amazing 12 over period of 35-7.

Having looked dead and buried NAG completed a comprehensive 48 run victory with 9 overs to spare, to claim a maximum 20-point return. Cox’s runs coupled with Ginn’s wickets proving the unlikely match winning combination

Offham II v New Ash Green II
Saturday 19th July 2003

Kent League Match - 100 Overs

New Ash Green (13 points) 268-6 (50 overs)
Offham (5 points) 177-7 (50 overs)
New Ash Green winning draw.

Short on bowling to start with New Ash Green were left even shorter by the late withdrawal of Graham Hobbs. They were, though, heartened by the sight of some very young looking boys in whites at Offham, and as it turned out Offham were far worse off than New Ash Green as far as missing players were concerned. In hot weather and with plenty of batting the latest temporary skipper, Andy Payne, was happy to win the toss and choose to bat first. The pitch looked fairly even, but it turned out to have some hidden demons as the mainly slow and low bounce was spiced up by the occasional lifter off a length, particularly from the brisk medium pace of Andy Prescott. Nonetheless despite one or two minor alarms Matthew Quantrill and Rob Jansen started steadily and then picked up the pace a little as they put on 62 for the first wicket. The first bowling change saw young Tom Gittins come into the attack and his nerves showed as he started with some full tosses, but then found a better line and length and bowled Rob Jansen round his legs for 32 with one that just grazed the leg stump. Gittins' next over also saw a couple of loose balls before a straight ball brought him another wicket as Andy Payne tried to cut one off middle stump and missed - not for nothing is he known as the best cutter in the club!

This mini collapse had halted the development of the New Ash Green innings but Quantrill and Andy Mayers were soon picking up the pace again and they added 61 for the 3rd wicket before Mayers swung at the slow bowing of Gordon Wood and was bowled for a brisk 29. Neil Howick started responsibly, but was soon swinging the bat. However his innings quickly ended with a catch in the deep, again leaving New Ash Green on the back foot as they tried to accelerate. Darren Phillips was next in for his first game in two months, but after a few rusty looking prods in his first few balls he suddenly started to time the ball and hit some crashing fours to all parts of the ground. Matthew Quantrill was still nudging the ball around, picking up singles almost every ball and piercing the field for 4 every now and then, although he rarely timed the ball well. He did manage one big hit off Gordon Wood's last ball, just failing to clear the pavilion but smashing a light bulb on the string of lights across the front of the pavilion and showering the spectators with glass! He and Phillips added 107 for the 5th wicket before Quantrill finally holed out in the deep in the penultimate over for 124. Phillips couldn't quite find the boundary in the last over but ended up with an excellent 49* as over 100 were added in the last 12 overs to take the total to 268-6.

Had New Ash Green realised how little batting Offham had they may have declared earlier, though with a paucity of bowling resources and very short boundaries around the ground they did need a big score to feel secure. However the total was clearly far higher than Offham felt they could get and from the start they showed little interest in trying for the win. Paul Sumner and Andy Mayers picked up one opener each, but the third wicket pair of George Wood and Martin England were thoroughly obdurate with England, the captain, in particular setting out his stall for the draw. Wood did keep swinging when he thought there were runs to be had, and eventually he was out to Neil Howick swatting one to cover where he was well held by Andy Mayers, the second of 3 good catches for Mayers. With England steadfastly refusing to be tempted by anything thrown at him by Sharad Bawdekar, Howick or Andy Payne the game was drifting along very dully in the middle phase. Lewis Cooper was given a couple of overs on his sceond team debut and produced one wicket and when Paul Sumner came back and produced some very awkward bounce to take a couple more the game came alive again for the last few overs. However Sumner could not produce another wicket, nor could Andy Mayers returning at the other end, despite a few close misses. The tension was kept alive to the end as New Ash Green knew that Offham's 10 and 11 were both youngsters who were unlikely to resist long, so one more wicket would probably have secured the win, but they couldn't make the necessary breakthrough as England saw out the final over to finish with 63*.

Town Malling v New Ash Green III
Saturday 19th July 2003

Friendly Match - 40 Overs

New Ash Green 158 all out
Town Malling 161-3
New Ash Green lost by 7 wickets.

On yet another very warm day Town Malling won the toss and elected to take the field. A steady start from Chris Hoddinott and Dan Lewsey was ended prematurely when a short ball from Smythe rolled along the ground to bowl Hoddinott for 11. This brought in 15 year old Chris Wade who looked very accomplished, Chris went on to score 10 but actually made a bigger impression than his score indicates. A personal battle between Graham Hampsheir (60) and Malling's Stevenson then occurred, Kent cricket board player Stevenson bowling sharp away swing certainly had the better of Hampsheir until a snick through the slips for 4 prompted Stevenson to bend his back, after hurling a torrent of abuse at the batsmen the bowler completely lost his composure and readily got dispatched to all parts!

Contributions from Sam Wilson (10) and Alan Carter (20*) helped the score up to a reasonable 158 all out.

Town Mallings innings began with Dan Lewsey in superb form with a triple wicket maiden from his second over. With Chris Wade bowling well at the other end, Ash Green could be forgiven for sensing victory. This was short lived however as Stevenson once again took centre stage hitting 102* out of a partnership of 154* for the forth wicket.

If this was meant to be a "weak" fixture for the thirds, maybe next time we should list ourselves as diabolical and see who we get to play!

Kingsnorth v New Ash Green
Sunday 20th July 2003

Kent Village League Match - 40 Overs

New Ash Green (0 points) 152 all out
Kingsnorth (6 points) 153-4 (39 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 6 wickets.

The above result is taken from the Village League website, but it contains no more details and I haven't had any report other than Kevin ginn telling me that he and Vic Mayers didn't concentrate hard enough.