Saturday 17th July and Sunday 18th
July 2004
Sidcup v New Ash Green
Saturday 17th July 2004
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs (reduced due to rain delay)
Sidcup (13
points) 192-8 (50 overs)
New Ash Green (5 points) 154-9 (50 overs)
New Ash Green losing draw.
A humid morning gave way to a threat of heavy
rain as start time approached, but Sidcup avoided the worst of it, and the game
was ready to start virtually on time. A wicket which the seconds had found to
be one of the best in the league last year looked to have deteriorated
dramatically in a year, having an uneven cover of green patchy grass, so Andy
Stuart had little hesitation in choosing to bat first, and he put the pressure
on immediately. A dodgy early single almost produced a run out in the first
over, but the batsman’s reprieve was short lived as he was bowled by the last
ball of that over. The ball was moving about in the humid conditions, but
unfortunately the New Ash Green bowlers weren’t quite tight enough to really apply
the screw, and when they did induce mistakes both batsmen were dropped from
straightforward chances. Phil Robinson and David Roles put on 63 for the third
wicket, with Robinson going on to make 51 before falling victim to the pitch
and gloving a ball from James Hewitt that popped straight up into the air,
giving Matthew Quantrill possibly the easiest catch
of his career behind the stumps. Hewitt exploited the conditions superbly,
varying his pace and getting a lot of swing as well as using the surface to
induce some seam movement as well, beating the bat on numerous occasions and
being often frustrated by pads thrust well forward to balls that might well
have hit the stumps. At the other end Chris Yue was
struggling with tight umpiring, missing the leg stump by no more than 4 inches
and seeing it called a wide. ‘Anything down the legside
is a wide’ said the Sidcup umpire. That is not the league rules, but New Ash
Green comforted themselves with the thought that it
would be the same for both sides. (This becomes relevant later, as I am sure
you can guess…bear with me….)
Yue came back later to
join Hewitt and together they not only slowed a rampant run rate but took a few
wickets, reducing Sidcup to 110-6. From there they struggled back, although
they were not out of the woods at 144-8. It was probably a mistake for New Ash
Green to remove Hewitt after 11 overs when he had
been bowling so well, although he came back to finish at the other end he was
not quite as lethal, still finishing with figures of 15-6-35-3. Yue took 3-54 in 12, his figures inflated by the strict
calling of wides, but New Ash Green were frustrated
by a stubborn unbeaten 9th wicket stand of 48 between Mockler and Bragg allowing Sidcup to end up with a total of
192-8 which had looked beyond them. Apart from the wides
and dropped catches New Ash Green didn’t help themselves with some poor
fielding, the sapping heat and humidity obviously causing some problems with
concentration.
New Ash Green took a bold gamble with their
batting order putting Neil Howick in to open with
Matthew Quantrill to see if he could boost the run
rate early on. Unfortunately with Howick suffering
from a twisted ankle and Quantrill drained by the
heat it was only thanks to extras that a respectable 21 was put on for the
first wicket. Those extras, though, didn’t contain many wides
as it was soon plain that ‘Anything down the legside
is a wide’ didn’t apply equally to both sides, with balls 2 feet outside leg
stump beating the keeper and being given as byes. Throughout the innings
probably a total of about 20 balls that would have been wides
if bowled by a New Ash Green bowler went unpunished, leaving a very bitter
feeling amongst the watching batting side, who took to cheering ironically when
byes rather than wides were signalled. That, however,
didn’t explain the New Ash Green collapse from 21-0 to 35-5, for which no
better excuse could be offered than tiredness from a draining 50 overs in the field, as the bowling was nothing to be
frightened of. This fact was ably demonstrated by Andy Stuart and Simon Duke
who began a very welcome fight back by putting on 30 for the sixth wicket
before Duke was bowled for 21. Stuart, though, was looking every inch a proper
batsman as he and Chris Yue then added 58 for the 7th
wicket, not helped by a rain break coming at a point when they had been getting
so much on top that it began to seem feasible that New Ash Green might still
snatch a win. Those hopes were ended when Stuart was beaten by a shooter and
bowled for an excellent 40, but Yue And Hewitt then put on a further 23 for the 8th
wicket and carried New Ash Green to within 3 overs of
avoiding defeat. Hewitt then got a little over-excited by hitting a good 4 and
getting within 4 runs of a second batting bonus point and was very LBW (for 18)
trying to flick a straight one to leg. Chris Yue did
get the bonus point sweeping a full toss for 4 in the next over, but was then yorked (for 25) from the 5th ball of the over to
leave the Hoddinott twins 7 balls to play out for the
draw, a feat they managed with consummate ease.
In the end New Ash Green probably deserved the
draw. Their poor catching early on and the 20-30 run difference in the scores
attributable to the inconsistent interpretation of wides
in the two inning was the real difference between what
were otherwise two reasonably evenly matched teams. It was heartening as well
to see the fight back in the batting after the poor performances of the last
two weeks, and we can only hope that the upper order will carry on the good
work next week!
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green II v Sidcup II
Saturday 17th July 2004
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
II (1 point) 67 all out (32.3 overs)
Sidcup II (16 points) 68-3 (16.3 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 7 wickets.
Initial hopes of bolstering the fledgling New
Ash Green side were dashed midweek with pullouts. With a weaker team than
originally planned and yet again no umpire, New Ash Green once again forfeited
the toss and were put into bat. A heavy shower before
the start enforced the use of the covers, which meant the wicket didn’t have a
chance to dry out before the New Ash Green innings started. Marc Klus and Matt Scanlan started
positively enough with Klus punishing anything loose
but with the ball darting around and variable bounce it wasn’t long before Scanlan perished attempting to turn one off his legs and
getting a leading edge which spooned up to Bragg at mid on. Robin Wills faced a
handful of balls before he too fell after a full length delivery got big on
him. Klus continued to swing hard at anything loose whilst
Graham Hampsheir just about got his head out of the
way of an ugly ball which reared off of a length and whistled past his nose! Hampsheir soon departed after a good catch a couple of inches
off the ground at cover by Steve James. Next man Chris Wade then joined Klus and continued his recent run of form,
batting for just over an hour, Wade applied himself excellently and although he
only scored ten runs, in the context of the innings it was a terrific effort
from one of the U17s players. Klus eventually
departed for a vital 25 runs – a mini collapse took the score from 47 for 4 to
58 for 9 before evergreen Matt Bushe and Oliver Harding edged the
score to 67 before Bushe’s departure.
Sidcup set about chasing the small target in
style with 23 coming from the first 3 overs from Dan Lewsey and Micky Sumner. It has
to be mentioned that the NAG innings took place in cloudy, sultry conditions
with the odd shower of rain. The Sidcup innings started as the sun came out and
it seemed like a totally different day!
After the initial few overs
the bowlers tightened up and good fielding meant Sidcup had to work hard for
their runs. Dan Lewsey who was difficult to get away
bowled a good line and was rewarded with 3 for 30 from his 8 overs, Micky Sumner bowled well
with pace and, once again, no luck as Sidcup romped home with around 50 overs to spare!
On the face of it this was another whacking for
the 2nds – in reality the absence of an umpire resulting in forfeiting the toss
probably had huge consequences to the outcome of the game. New Ash Green were a much improved fielding outfit compared to last week
at Chistlehurst. As with winning, losing also becomes
a habit, with a positive approach and a little bit of luck (+ an umpire) New
Ash Green could see their fortunes improve in the coming weeks as we fight to
starve off relegation.
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green III v Blackheath Select
Saturday 17th July 2004
Unfortunately
the bold efforts to get a third XI out for the last two weeks came to naught
when availabilities were down again this week and the third team game had to be
conceded again. This will almost certainly be the death knell for the 3rd
XI as conceding 3 games leads to expulsion from the league. Sadly the likely
knock on effect will be a weakening of the club as a whole as the reserve pool of players drift away when they can no longer get regular
cricket and young players have no games in which to develop.
Hawkinge v New Ash Green
Sunday 18th July
Unfortunately for the second week in a row the club was unable to
put out a Sunday XI. This may also mean the end of league cricket on a Sunday
and the return to the unsatisfactory situation of a few years ago when Sunday
fixtures were unreliable and often of poor quality. The demise of the third XI
will mean that efforts will have to be made to concentrate on making the Sunday
side a development team.
This has been, probably, the club’s worst weekend for many years.
Not so much because of the results, though they are disappointing enough, but
because so much hard work over the last few years seems to be going to waste.
Where we go from here is very much up to the general membership, but if we are
to turn things round there will need to be a greater commitment from a greater
number of players. Otherwise the club will revert to being a two team Saturday
club, and will soon fall back from the heights it has recently reached, which
would be a great shame bearing in mind the work that has been done is
establishing a second ground.