Saturday 31st July and Sunday 1st
August 2004
Rodmersham v New Ash Green
Saturday 31st July 2004
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(0 points) 90 all out (30.4 overs)
Rodmersham (16 points) 91-1 (17.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 9 wickets.
With
the warm weather finally here to stay New Ash Green arrived at the picturesque Rodmersham ground to find a very green looking wicket, that
otherwise looked firm and even. On losing the toss they were quite pleased to
be asked to bat, Rodmersham having played Sidcup the
previous week and been told tails of heroic rearguard actions depriving Sidcup
of full points! The opening bowlers were quickish and
slowish medium pace respectively, but the green
wicket helped them to move the ball around quite a bit. Nonetheless although
some balls did keep low the ball was coming onto the bat and New Ash Green’s
openers each hit an early boundary and didn’t look too uncomfortable until in
the fifth over one going down the legside struck Quantrill on the pad and he was rather surprised to be
given out – a verdict which Rodmersham’s captain
later confessed had surprised him as well! Andy Stuart and Andy Cox soon
followed, but Marc Klus and Ben Boss then put
together a promising looking stand, putting on 31 for the 4th wicket.
Initially they seemed to deal with the threat of South African Piet Botha’s off spin, but Klus having swept him well for 4 was then caught by
surprise and bowled for 14 by a quicker one. Simon Duke also didn’t last long,
but the two Boss’s then put on a brief bravura partnership of 18, including a
straight six over the road from Rob before Rob holed out for 11 and Ben was out
shortly afterwards for the top score of 23. The tail put up little resistance
and could just about scrape the total up to 90, just beating last week’s total,
with Botha ending up with 5-20 to aid his quest to be
leading wicket-taker and run scorer in the league for the second year running.
Chasing
90 should have been easy on that wicket, and with Botha
looking a class above anyone else (as indeed he is) it wasn’t. The New Ash
Green bowlers didn’t bowl badly, but anything slightly loose was put away with
absolute safety. Attempts to goad Botha into a rash
shot by talking about sixes did not succeed, and when the total had reached
89-0 with Botha on 62 total defeat
looked on the cards. Cometh the hour though…. The ball was thrown to Simon Duke,
and after two good dot balls Botha slashed at one angled
across him and got a little nick which was clung onto at the second attempt by Quantrill behind the stumps. Duke’s day was made as his
first league scalp was the biggest prize possible, and the fact that he then
conceded the losing runs was of little significance to him. It was small
consolation overall, but the feeling did remain that the two sides might have
been quite closely matched had one player not been involved. However, New Ash
Green having at one stage looked as if they might get into the promotion fight
have now slipped perilously close to the relegation zone, and will need to pick
up their game and look for at least one more win before the end of the season
if they are to preserve their status.
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green II v Rodmersham
II
Saturday 31st July 2004
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
II (3 points) 110 all out (40.5 overs)
Rodmersham II (16 points) 111-8 (37.2 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 2 wickets.
Hope to receive a match report in due course,
but again the 2nds have put up a fight and only narrowly lost. On a much
re-used wicket batting seems to have been difficult, and the predictable
consequence of Andy Payne and Graham Hampsheir
batting together seems to have been a run out, but they did both at least make respectable
scores. Other than them only Dan Lewsey with a 4 and
a 6 at the end made double figures. In reply Rodmerhsam
seem to have struggled against Andy Mayers who took
3-12 in 8 overs, and other bowlers seem to have been
tidy, Graham Hobbs conceding just 7 runs in 6 overs.
New Ash Green must have looked favourites when it was 67-7, but no.8 Paul Mansell hit 26, Rodmersham’s
highest score, and the two youngsters at the end took their time to steer Rodmersham home. 20 points might have given New Ash Green a
faint hope of avoiding relegation, but they now are 40 points from safety, and
are surely doomed, which is a great shame when they at last seem to be putting
out competitive teams.
Click HERE for full scorecard from KCL site.
Click HERE for latest league table.