Saturday 10th July and Sunday 11th
July 2004
New Ash Green v Old Colfeians
Saturday 10th July 2004
Kent League
Match - 90 Overs (reduced due to rain delay)
Old Colfeians (20 points) 198-6 (45 overs)
New Ash Green (2 points) 107 all out (39.2 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 91 runs.
A fairly pleasant morning allowed a pitch to be
prepared, and up till an hour before start time it all seemed very pleasant.
Then the clouds thickened, and the first rain fell. For the next two hours the
covers were on and off, but eventually the match got under way about ¾ of an
hour late, reduced to 90 overs. There was not a great
deal of confidence that the game would be completed, as thick grey clouds came
over several times, but amazingly there was no more rain beyond a few drops,
despite, in the latter stages of the game, New Ash Green’s desperate prayers….
For a change Andy Stuart won the toss and
inserted Old Colfeians. Despite the covering from the
morning rain the pitch was still damp and slow from the heavy rain during the
week, and it should have been a good toss to win. However the early overs didn’t seem to bring the usual spate of playing and
missing, though there were a couple of early wickets. Both were slightly
controversial, the first to Andy Stuart when Richard “Mr. Happy” Pallett seemed to clearly edge one on to his pad which
popped up in the air allowing Matthew Quantrill to
step in from gully and take an easy catch. New Ash Green celebrated before
noticing the batsman was still standing at the crease. A belated appeal got the
umpire’s finger raised, though it wasn’t till later that most of the New Ash
Green team would believe that Pallett had really had
to be given out. The second wicket was Colfes captain
Mark Quilter, who pulled a full toss from Andy Cox to mid-wicket and was caught
by James Hewitt. While many might have thought that being caught by Hewitt was
cause enough for complaint, his true complaint was that he felt the ball had
been above waist height and should have been a no ball, but the umpires both
felt that by the time it reached the crease it would have been below that
height and the wicket stood.
There then followed a threatening stand between
Richard Harmer and Mali Warnapura that threatened to
take the game away from New Ash Green completely. When 13 runs were taken from
the first five balls of an Andy Cox over and both batsmen seemed to be in good
touch things looked bleak, but the last ball of the over was edged high and
wide by Warnapura and Matthew Quantrill
at slip reached out left handed and plucked the ball out of the air. The very
next ball from Micky Sumner, his first, induced a
leading edge form Harmer which agonisingly fell a few feet in front of Ben Boss
sprinting in at extra cover. Harmer continued to enjoy some luck, particularly
off Sumner with a drop behind and what was nearly a brilliant legside stumping missed. He also played some excellent
shots, driving powerfully as he made 59 before Sumner eventually got the luck
he deserved when he was bowled off bat and pad, the ball just trickling onto
the stumps. Sumner and Hewitt then continued to put the pressure on the middle
order, slowing the run rate in mid innings when it had looked like getting
completely out of hand. Sumner eventually took 2-46 in 12 overs
and Hewitt bowled 12 overs for 37 runs, though he
failed to take a wicket. However Richard Thornton and Tom Holmes weathered the
slow period and accelerated at the end, putting on 89 for the sixth wicket,
aided by some uncharacteristic lapses in the field with drops by James Hewitt
and Andy Cox off their own bowling and Cox (again – astonishingly!) and (also
surprisingly) Klus in the outfield. Eventually
Hat total looked even better as the opening
bowlers Irfan Begg and
Rafael Prendergast moved the ball about considerably to put the pressure on the
New Ash Green openers. Andy Cox got a leading edge to be the first of five
ducks, and for a long while extras were the top scorer despite the occasional
powerful drive from Marc Klus. Nonetheless New Ash
Green seemed to have weathered the storm when Richard ‘Mr. Happy’ Pallett came on to bowl and Matthew Quantrill
hit two loose balls for 4 in his first over. The second wicket partnership had
reached 43 when Quantrill edged one in Mr. Happy’s next over and was brilliantly caught for 18 inches
off the ground at slip by Warnapura, getting his
revenge! Klus followed soon afterwards for 15 and the
innings was soon in ruins as the all too familiar New Ash Green collapse
returned against the apparently innocuous bowling. Ben Boss, on his first team
debut, managed some powerful shots and top scored with 19. Kieran Hoddinott, displaying mastery of the sweep, Andy Stuart
with 13 and Micky Sumner showing some signs of his
old form with the bat and making 8* gave some hopes that the draw might be
attained and a bonus point or two picked up, but Mr. Happy returned to get
Stuart and end up with the surprising figures of 7.2-2-18-6. He almost
smiled…but not quite. He was still unhappy about the number of members of his
team who had their shirts untucked.
A disappointing defeat, not so much because of
the loss, because Colfeians were a good side and
deserved to win, but because of the manner of it. Batting collapses had seemed
to be a thing of the past, but returned with a vengeance, and once again New
Ash Green go away knowing they must work harder to
make an impact on the top sides in the division.
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site
Click HERE for latest league table.
Chislehurst & West Kent II v New Ash Green
II
Saturday 10th July 2004
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
II (0 points) 86 all out (34 overs)
Chislehurst & West Kent II (16 points) 89-1 (13.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 9 wickets.
Report awaited.
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green III v Snodland
Community
Saturday 10th July 2004
League Match -
40 Overs per side
Snodland Community (19 pts) 222-5 (40 overs)
New Ash Green III (2 pts) 85-8 (40 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 137 runs.
Going
to prove that match reporters should sometimes rein in their optimism, another
challenging week for selections saw a side even younger that which had taken on
Wickham Park 2 weeks ago turn out against Snodland Community for this home fixture. Again some
late call-ups ensured that we did have 11 players, on this occasion the
Saturday morning addition of Tim & Oliver Cooper making it 2 father and son
pairings, with Mike & Ben Cooke already in the side. Some confusion
with directions meant that we almost had to face a side strengthened by half the ?? team due to face the 1st
team, although Jasper quickly sent them down to Manor Field - having seen that
scorecard I can only apologise for not sending them the other way!!
Anyway,
as it was we got to 1.20 and the (correct) opposition were all there, and we
had 11 players, so we went to look at the wicket, which we'd covered 5 minutes
earlier with the heavens opening. Their skipper took a quick looked and
did then offer to accept an abandonment on the grounds that he didn't want to
wreck the wicket in the conditions. Being a sporting skipper Scanners
swiftly declined the offer, but did agree that we would have to start
late. A quick consultation of the rules meant we had a 40-over a side match,
and on winning the toss Scanners asked Snodland to
have a bat. The skipper opened up with himself in tandem with Lee
Saunders, another promising young man from what is beginning to look like a
production line - well done to all involved in the colts on looking after our
future there, and what a relief that these lads are able to help us 'grown-ups'
(I use the term loosely) out here in the present. A promising start from
this new ball pair saw a slow Snodland start, with
nothing being given away, and when Scanners bowled the opener Hearn for
only 6, with the score on 20 after 7 overs, things
looked rosy indeed. Lee finished a probing spell with the commendable
figures of 4-0-11-0, and could (should) have had a wicket - captain Scanners
conspiring to put down not 1 but 2 eminently take-able catches off the
other opener (Lees). It must be noted that the cool-headed response of
young Lee was commendable - showing a resemblance to a certain 2nd team bowler
(Paul Sumner) in this reporter's personal opinion - heading back to his
mark again, confident in the knowledge that the wicket was there for the
taking. That meant Ben Cooke came on first change at the Pavilion End,
with Mike clarifying to your reporter that these spells in the adult teams had
helped to hone his length - apparently in age group cricket his yorker is looking quite deadly. On 22 yards that
meant him bowling on a good length, and after scoring nothing off his first 2
balls the other opener Lees looked to hit him in through point but only
succeeded in picking out Lee Saunders, who showed his skipper how it was done
by pocketing the catch comfortably. This left Snodland
35 for 2 after 9.3, and 3 overs later Scanners took
another wicket, as Tim Cooper spectacularly held a tumbling catch at cover - 1
which any regular cricketer would have been proud of, let alone someone who
claimed he was only there as his son was playing and to help us out! With
play like that Tim looked like a man the 3rd team would like to join us
again if he'd like. That left Snodland 50
for 3 from 13 with 2 relatively new batsmen in, and at the end of Ben's
spell the score was 67 for 3 from 16. Andy Oliver then took over at the
Pavilion End before Scanners finished his allocation with figures of 10-3-40-2
and replaced himself with Oliver Cooper from the Redhill
Road End. This young pairing kept looking for a good
line and length without any luck, as the Snodland
middle order began to rebuild. A few lusty blows from the
number 4 (Wratten) gave a taste of things to
come, moving the score on to 103 for 3 from 22, with Andy replaced at the end
of his spell of 3-0-25-0 by the returning Lee, who picked up where he left
off with a very impressive line and length. Oliver ended his spell with
4-0-28-0, a few big strikes from the impressive Wratten
denying him the sort of figures he deserved. Scanners
then brought Joe Elisak on at the Redhill Road End as the hard-hitting Wratten
kept on the attack. A century partnership was eventually parted by Joe,
who refused to let a couple of 6's put him off, as he found Watts's
leg stump as the slow-scoring number 5 looked to join in the
attack. That left Snodland 157 for 4 and gave
Joe figures of 3-0-25-1 - taking those 2 maximums out of the equation a good
return. Lee had finished an over earlier with the cracking figures of
9-2-22-0, and with a few dropped catches conspiring against him must have
felt unlucky not to have had a 2 or 3 wicket haul. As the innings drew to
a close Graeme Pool came on at the Redhill Road End,
having spent the first 20-odd overs behind the stumps
before Scanners took over after his bowling spell. The fact he has only
now been mentioned bears testament to how tidy the keeping was, as does the
fact that in that time only 3 byes escaped him. In the
absence of our usual opening keeper (Maqlain Bushtaq having deserted us for the 2nd team!) Graeme
showed yet another string to his bow - the kind of versatility the 3rd team
thrives upon. Graeme's bowling partner at the death was the returning Ben
Cooke, who suffered harshly as Wratten charged past
his century with a succession of boundaries which rather spoiled Ben's figures,
ending as he did with 7-2-52-1, having had 4-1-15-1 from his opening
spell. At the other end Graeme probed away at the junior partner (
That
sent us in for another fine tea provided by the Cooke family - many thanks
again for all the hard work to Lorraine, and to Hayley,
who kept supreme control as she scored (including showing the opposition
captain where his book had gone wrong!). Over tea Scanners passed on news
that it was chucking it down in Swanley, suggesting
that we might look to play (should that be pray?) for
rain. With that in mind he chose to open himself, accompanied by Jasper,
with the idea (surprising as it may sound) that Scanners would hit the runs and
Jasper would play (block?!) the opening bowlers out of the attack. This
worked for 2.4 overs, with Scanners striking 2 lovely
4's off Nye, before he was caught for 8 looking to attack the same man.
That made it 11 for 1 and sent Graeme Poole in at what is becoming a regular
spot at number 3. Shortly afterwards the stand-in umpires (Andy Oliver
& Matt Ashford) were replaced by Robin Wills and Maqlain
Bushtaq, returning from Chislehurst after an early
finish for the 2's. This turned out to be good news for Jasper, who took
the opportunity to swap the aged Ian Botham sponsored
So,
it goes down in the scorebook as another heavy defeat, but again it was a great
learning experience for all involved (young and old). At the risk of
sounding like a stuck record (and before anyone else says it, clearly a
very-long-player), it was another positive team performance, and with a little
luck with a couple of catches (and taking Wratten
out of the equation) it could have been far closer. This reporter will
not be present next week, but may I end with my usual call for availabilities
to ensure that the all 3 teams get sides out, ensuring that these 3rd team
matches continue to give much-needed opportunities to us all. Cheers! (Editor’s note – Here here!)
Pluckley v New Ash Green
Sunday 11th July
Unfortunately in the absence of several Sunday regulars New Ash
Green were unable to raise a side for this game. Some serious thought now needs
to go into the organisation of 3rd team and Sunday cricket. The
committee are discussing the matter – anyone who has any views should make them
known!