Saturday 4th June & Sunday 5th June 2005
Walmer v New Ash Green
Saturday 4th June 2005
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(0 points) 75 all out (39.5 overs)
Walmer (16 points) 76-2 (16 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 8 wickets.
Anyone from the 1st XI wanting to write a match report
would be welcomed with open arms, metaphorically at least. From what I can
gather the wicket had been under water the previous day and was not easy early
on, as a score of 22-6 suggests. Matt Scanlan top
scored with 17 at number 7 and the Mayers at 8 and 9
were the only others to get into double figures. Walmer
seem to have found batting easier, and knocked off the runs with indecent
haste, though Andy Cox’s figures look respectable – the rest should have a veil
drawn over them….
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New Ash Green II v The Mote IV
Saturday 4th June 2005
Mid-Kent
League Match - 92 Overs
The Mote IV (4
points) 173-8 (46 overs)
New Ash Green (19 points) 174-3 (43.1 overs)
New Ash Green won by 7 wickets.
It was almost straightforward for New Ash Green
– the selected XI all played, almost all arrived on time and they even had an
umpire. Of course Dominic Adolphe had to confuse
matters somewhat by arriving over an hour and a half late, but having everyone
on time and ready to go would just be too easy. Losing the toss and having to
field fist was a variation not experienced since the first league game of the
season, and the pessimists (Dom again…) were convinced New Ash Green couldn’t
chase. The Mote were almost unrecognisable compared to the side New Ash Green
had beaten 3 weeks previously, with only 3 players surviving, and the change
was mostly for the better as far as they were concerned. Pete Burke struck once
early on, Chris McKellow going back to one that kept
a bit low and being bowled, but Jonathan Crowhurst,
Matthew Britz and Tom McKellow
all looked respectable batsmen, and with none of the New Ash Green bowlers
quite at the top of their game they kept the score moving along nicely. It
wasn’t just the bowlers not on the top of their game, misfields
and overthrows contributed their share, and occasional bursts of rain, one of
which forced a half hour stoppage, did nothing for the fielding or bowling as
the ball became steadily more soggy. New Ash Green never went to pieces,
though, and with Ben Cooke and Alan Carter combining well to do a respectable
job as the fourth bowler The Mote found it hard to accelerate in the second
half of their innings. Once they did the wickets soon started to tumble,
especially to Dan Lewsey who eventually picked up a 5th
wicket with his final ball, ending with 5-46. A few swipes at the end allowed
more 4s to be scored in the last four overs than the
rest of the innings combined, and in the conditions 173-8 was worth over 200,
but nonetheless it was a lower score than had looked likely at one stage, and
the late tumble of wickets ensured New Ash Green picked up 4 bonus points.
Choosing to keep the old ball and bowl himself
and the slow medium Alex Fedorcio Mote skipper David Damen was hoping to put the squeeze on New Ash Green early
on. He was helped by two early wickets , Andy Payne skying Fedorcio in the first over
and Matthew Quantrill playing round a straight one in the third. Dominic Adolphe was baffled by the slow, loopy but accurate Damen, coming down the pitch to him almost every ball, but
then having to block as he couldn’t quite get in a position to hit him. Dan
Walton was playing soundly at the other end, and New Ash Green rebuilt the
innings, though somewhat behind the rate at which the Mote had scored. The run
rate didn’t rise above 2 until the 20th over, but no more wickets
were lost, and New Ash Green again set out to prove that wickets in hand allow
acceleration in the second half of an innings. The Mote, meanwhile, set out to
prove that if catches win matches, drops can lose them, a lesson learnt by New
Ash Green the previous week. Dan Walton was put down at square leg and backward
point, neither difficult chances, as well as being missed by slip and
wicketkeeper when he put one between them, and he made sure that the fielders
responsible were made to rue their mistakes. With increasing freedom he started
to pepper the boundaries on a regular basis, and with support firstly from Adolphe and then from Peter Burke, with another cameo at
better than a run a ball, he set about bringing the required rate down from
nearly six an over with 20 to go to under 4 by the last eight. In the end the
victory was easy with 17 balls to spare and plenty of wickets in hand, and to
everyone’s delight, at least on the New Ash Green side, Walton reached a well
deserved maiden century from the penultimate ball before Burke finished the
match off with a fine straight drive for 4. A fine win despite a poor fielding performance, and showing the depth of the New Ash Green
batting after the early loss of both openers, but some tightening of the
bowling and fielding will be needed if the batsmen are not going to have to
perform at the same level every week.
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New Ash Green v Frindsbury
Sunday 5th June 2005
Medway Sunday
League Match - 40 Overs per side
New Ash Green
(1 point) 174-7 (40 overs)
Frindsbury (6 points) 175-7 (37.5 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 3 wickets.
The Sunday curse was looking like it might have struck again as a
full New Ash Green XI waited at Manor field, time ticked by and there was no
sign of Frindsbury, but a trip to New Ash Green
located the opposition at the wrong ground, and the game got under way only some
15 minutes late. Alan Carter too a bold decision to bat first, but after Matt Scanlan had edged the first ball for 4 it looked a
questionable decision when Graham Poole was bowled by one that kept a bit low
and the pressure was on. Scanalan and Matthew Quantrill steadied the ship, and then picked up the scoring
rate with a flurry of boundaries, the bulk scored by Quantrill
mainly because he received the bulk of the full tosses and long hops on offer. The
brakes were put back on by the slow medium pace of Paul Winchester, demanding
careful attention on a fairly lifeless wicket, and by the spin of young Sam Gracey, who flighted the ball
well and got some turn up the hill, though he was guilty of one of the worst
LBW appeals in history when his faster ball, from around the wicket, pitched
well outside leg and struck Quantrill on the top of
his thigh. Scanlan eventually perished for 21 to Gracey, well caught by Mike Nock round the corner, and after
Tim Cooper had got off the mark with a pulled 4 he gave Nock a much simpler
chance off
Chasing 175 would be a stiff target for Frindsbury
if the New ash Green bowlers could give away fewer runs by way of short balls
and full tosses, but sadly they largely failed to do that, and they were not
helped by the rather more stringent interpretation of the wides
rule taken by the Frindsbury unpires.
Shaz Raza cut almost
anything slightly short, and flew the ball just out of the fielders’ reach on
several occasions, but 47 were added before Matt Kynaston
spooned a full toss from Dan Lewsey straight to the
welcoming elbows and chest of Keith Bushell. This
only brought in Matt Payne, who much like his New Ash Green name sake played
with some power, punching the ball away late with strong arms to great effect.
New Ash Green were soon ruing a sharp chance put down at slip in Payne’s first
over, and with Raza still riding his luck it began to
look as if Frindsbury would cruise to victory. Arron Dodson bowled a decent spell until his problems with wides came back to haunt him, though some genuine wides were mixed in with ones where the umpires were
perhaps unduly harsh. Alan Carter then turned to Mick Sumner, and with his
first ball he turned the game back towards New Ash Green by managing to hit
Payne on the knee and force him to retire hurt. Nigel Kynaston,
who replaced him looked a very competent bat, though, and
as he and Raza withstood the full force of Sumner’s
initial burst it looked as though Frindsbury would
carry on serenely. Eventually, though, Raza’s luck
ran out – having frustrated the fielders for some time he charged at Matt Bushe, missed and was stumped. When Bushe
bowled Tom Burt in the same over and Sumner took the edge of Kynaston’s bat in the next New Ash Green were suddenly
right back in the hunt. Paul Winchester
was soon using his strength to great effect on anything slightly loose, and
Jamie Minshull supported him ably to again put Frindsbury back on top. They put on 49 for the 5th
wicket and had reduced the target to just 9 in 6 overs
when
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