Saturday 24th April
Hartley Country Club v New Ash Green
Saturday 24th April 2004
Friendly Match
(45 overs per side, max. 9 per bowler)
Hartley
Country Club 223 all out (44.5 overs)
New Ash Green 84 all out (36.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 139 runs.
It is a sign of how much the club has improved in the last 10
years or so that for the first time ever we were invited to compete on equal
terms with our near neighbours, who in living memory have only deigned to let
New Ash Green play their 3rd or 4th XI. However it was
also a sign of how easily gains made in the last few years could be lost that
we were unable to prepare a pitch for the 2nd XI game, then unable to put out a 2nd XI, then struggled
to raise even one XI. The original selection had contained a reasonable side
with some 7 first team players, but 3 of that 7 dropped out and the
replacements, though they performed with great credit, were hardly of the same
calibre. Given that Hartley are already a stronger side than us it was hardly
ideal to go in with a weakened team against what was pretty much a full XI of
first team squad members for them, if not quite a full strength XI.
In these circumstances the captains agreed that in order to
ensure the best chance of everyone getting a good game, the main point of early
season games after all, Hartley should bat first. The first few overs from Matt Meehan and James Hewitt were distinctly
rusty, and despite a slow green pitch and slow outfield, with a very long
boundary on one side Hartley raced to 28 off the first 4 overs.
Meehan then induced an edge which was dropped at gully by Rob Jansen, but he
recovered well to secure a run out as the batsmen seemed half asleep in running
one for the drop without looking to see where the ball had gone. Meehan then upped
his pace, and the run rate dropped somewhat. Vic Mayers
and Pete Burke replaced the opening bowlers, and Vic bowled with considerable
pace on the slow wicket, as well as getting some balls to jag sharply off the
pitch. It was Burke, though, who took two wickets, although he was expensive,
going for 29 in 4 overs. Having thus exhausted the
supply of 1st team bowlers New Ash Green turned to the supposed
lesser players, with usual 3rd XI bowlers Alan Carter, Dan Lewsey and Olly Harding looking
to make up the 5th bowler between them. They were more than
successful. Carter swung the ball considerably, beating the batsman a number of
times, and the keeper almost as often, and took 1-27. But it was Lewsey who really made the breakthrough, having gone for 18
from his first 7 balls, including a huge 6, he found a reasonable line and
length, wobbled the ball about a bit off the green top and caused the batsmen
no end of problems on his way to taking 4-27 in 7 overs.
Harding also started slowly, having a lot of trouble finding his length, but
showed that he may play a more useful role this season when he hopes to play
more regularly than in the last couple of years as he settled into a good line
and length by the end and took 1-25 in 7. So shamed were the first team bowlers
by this display that none chose to come back for a 2nd spell, with
newcomer Matt Bush, playing his first game for a few years, taking the last two
and picking up the final wicket amongst a plethora of wides.
A creditable performance from a weakened team against good
opposition, and backed up as well by excellent fielding. There were only a
couple of glaring mis-fields, and apart from Jansen’s
drop (which he made up for with the run out) nothing straightforward was
missed, with Jasper Holiday in particular taking an excellent catch on the
boundary, as well as a couple of other solid catches from Dan Lewsey and Matt Bush.
New Ash Green were thus able to enjoy an excellent tea, having
done much better than they had feared, though the fact that the score was still
well above par on a green wicket was soon obvious when New Ash Green batted.
New Ash Green old boy Richard Slatem opened the bowling, but on a slow wicket
was not able to cause the batsmen too much trouble, though his greater
accuracy, as with most of the Hartley bowlers, meant New Ash Green never looked
likely to get near the asking rate of 5 an over. Never totally routed, New Ash
Green nonetheless always made it look much harder work than Hartley had done,
particularly with no regular 1st team batsmen available. Pete Burke
made a quickish 17, Matthew Quantrill
a much more sedate 16 and they had the best partnership of the innings with 29
for the second wicket. At that time, and indeed for a
while afterwards, until Alan Carter was run out after mis-judging
a mis-field, New Ash Green did look as if they might
almost make a fight of it, but things did subside a bit thereafter. James
Hewitt hit 20 at the end from the change bowling (Editor’s note: Mr. Hewitt wishes it
pointed out that this was not 2nd change or support bowlers, or at
least not for all of his runs. Personally I was showering or looking into the
sun so couldn’t really comment on the quality of the bowling, but in fairness
this was a good quality opposition and I don’t think any of the bowling was
giving runs away.), and he and Olly Harding added 17 for
the last wicket, the 2nd best partnership, but there was never any
real doubt about the outcome. Nonetheless New Ash Green did at least make
Hartley do some work for their win, and provided them with enough opposition to
at least make sure they will have got some meaningful practice out of the game.
We will have to see whether it was enough to get invited back again next year,
or whether we will have to wait another 30 years for another chance!