Monday 30th August 2004
New Ifield v New Ash
Green
Friendly Match
New Ifield 191-7 (46 overs)
New Ash Green 160-8 (36 overs)
Match Drawn.
The now traditional bank holiday game against New Ifield again attracted a decent New Ash Green turn out,
something of a rarity for a friendly game these days. A brief shower slightly
delayed the start, but otherwise the weather was reasonable, and by the evening
bright and sunny, which was fortunate as the game would have finished in
extreme gloom if there had been any clouds in the sky! The wicket was not
surprisingly green, but played fairly evenly and with a reasonable amount of
pace. New Ash Green opened the bowling with the Boss brothers, who have been
practicing in the nets waiting for their chance to exhibit their all round
talents in a match. Each picked up a wicket, but it was Rob who was the more
impressive, producing a spell of 7-4-8-1 and troubling all the batsmen. Ben,
though, did have a second string to his bow, returning at the end to bowl some
spin and end up with 2-40. Although he played and missed a few times at both
Boss’s Simon Ellis survived and began to flourish against the change bowling.
Although New Ifield is his long standing home club he
now plays his league cricket for the Mote, and he looked a class above the rest
of the batting, dominating the scoring. Ben Cooke produced a tidy spell, but
Alan Carter after a steady start lost his line and length and became very
expensive, though had Ben Boss been fully awake at square leg all the leg side
long hops might have been less expensive or even produced a wicket. Matt Bushe also struggled a bit to find his length, though he
did improve during his spell, and Matthew Scanlan
unveiled another talent with a useful spell of spin himself, taking 2-29 in 9 overs. Ben Boss returned to get Ellis caught around the
corner for 98 by a slightly surprised looking Alan Carter and at tea New Ifield had posted 191.
It looked a competitive total, especially as New Ash Green were
likely to get less overs than New Ifield
to chase them, but the superb teas seem to have a greater effect on the New Ifield bowlers than on the batting side. Marc Klus scored 12 runs (including a pulled 6) in the first
over, and a further 5 extras in the same over gave New Ash Green a flying
start. The runs slowed down slightly after that, but the score had reached 38
by the 7th over when Matthew Quantrill got
under a full toss and was caught at fine leg. Klus,
though, was joined by Andy Stuart and they carried on the chase. On the ground
where he had made his 3 highest previous scores Klus
played with confidence, and the fielders seemed to accept that he was destined
to make runs, dropping him 3 times, two off them absolute sitters. After 80 had
been added for the 2nd wicket Stuart was bowled for 38, and shortly
afterwards a big hit from Klus found Simon Ellis on
the boundary, and he was not going to make a mistake. Needing over 6 an over
already the task now seemed hopeless, though New Ash Green kept chasing almost
till the end. The last 6 overs of spin from Tom Whiskin kept them in the game and brought him 3-23 but at
the other end a long spell of steady seam bowling from Gareth Hunt (12-1-46-3)
really made it impossible for New Ash Green to chase the total in 10 less overs than New Ifield had had. In
the end Steve Hurst and Matt Bushe ended the run of
suicides that had put New Ash Green in danger of losing and saw out the final two
overs safely for a well deserved draw.