Saturday 6th August 2005
Old Elthamians &
Granby v New Ash Green
Saturday 1st August 2005
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(2 points) 80 all out (25.3 overs)
Old Elthamians (16 points) 81-6 (34 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 4 wickets.
Rumours and the scorebook once again provide the basis for the
report. Elthamians won the toss and inserted New Ash
Green, who seem to have batted fairly poorly. Vic Mayers made 20, Andy Stuart 19 and he and Mick Sumner made
the season’s best 10th wicket stand of 20 to take the score to 80.
T. Bryson took 7-41. There was time for 9 overs
before tea, and James Hewitt exploited them by taking 3 wickets in an over
including the usually high scoring overseas player 1st ball, so Elthamians were 12-3 at tea. Micky
Sumner’s last 3 overs were a bit expensive, but Vic Mayers took two early wickets to keep the game alive at
47-5. One of these was apparently a player who had been a bit mouthy during the
game, drove his first ball straight at Andy Stuart, hard, and saw it parried
into the air for Vic to catch. B. Patey, who opened,
kept of grafting till near the end, when he was LBW to Pete Burke, but Elthamians were able to scrape home by 4 wickets.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green II v New Ifield
II
Saturday 6th August 2005
Mid-Kent
League Match - 92 Overs
New Ash Green (7
points) 84 all out (33.2 overs)
New Ifield (20 points) 85-5 (20.1 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5wickets.
The usual chaos in selection the week after
tour was also accompanied by a poor performance from many players, also a
regular feature of post-tour weekends. Having thought they had XI the previous
evening New Ash Green discovered shortly before the start that Kieran Poole was
not available and Dan Lewsey and Alan Carter didn’t
realise there was a game. Dan was able to turn out at short notice, while Chris
Hoddinott also turned out to make the numbers up to
10. Andy Payne had promised to play if desperate once he had finished other
things he needed to get done, but the game was over before he was ready, so it
was a 10 man side that took part.
Being asked to bat first was not ideal in terms
of giving everyone a game, but with only seven players on the ground at the
start New Ash Green were in no position to negotiate.
Young Jayson Obee opened
with a good spell, bowling a very good pace for an under 15, and more
impressively keeping a good line and length. He opened with 4 consecutive
maidens, and in the 4th got the key wicket of Matthew Quantrill with a lifting delivery that took the shoulder of
the bat and was caught by a diving Steve Bage. Blair
Wilson, on his first appearance of the season followed two balls later. Meanwhile
at the other end Graeme Poole perished in the first over, and Arron Dodson, after hitting two consecutive fours, pushed
to hard at one and was caught and bowled. When Dan Lewsey
was also bowled in the 8th over New Ash Green had been reduced to
9-5. There then followed probably the best partnership of the match between
Chris Hoddinott and Lee Saunders, who looked an
excellent prospect. With Obee off none of the other
bowlers seemed as threatening – indeed neither did Obee
in his second spell when he was not as accurate as he had been with the new
ball, and in the end Saunders was unlucky to be out on 14 bottom
edging an attempted cut onto his stumps. Ben Cooke made 2, then
Keith Bushell with some positive hitting helped Hoddinott add another 26 before he was out for 19. Matt Bushe became the fifth duck of the innings, but stayed long
enough to take the score on to 84 before leaving Hoddinott
stranded on 26*.
New Ash Green made a much tidier start than
they had in defending a similar score at New Ifield,
and Ben Cooke picked up a wicket in his second over with a very clear LBW. He
was then hit out of the attack by the aggressive Bage,
who made a rapid 26, though his shots became chancier as his innings went on
and eventually a big heave and miss brought great delight to Keith Bushell as middle stump was knocked back. With Dan Lewsey now bowling his best spell for some time, moving the
ball and getting lift off the green wicket two more quick wickest
fell to leave the game in the balance at 48-4, and another at 66 gave New Ash
Green new hope. Blair Wilson came on for his first bowl of the season and
showed glimpses of what might have been if he had been available regularly, but
in the end the experienced pair of Richard Leal and Vic Outtar
were able to steer New Ifield home to a fairly
comfortable victory, leaving New Ash Green to wonder what might have been if
they had got their act together in the first few overs.
Click HERE for latest league table.
Sunday August 7th 2005
Sadly despite having enough players and knowing well over a week
in advance, we were unable to find a bureau fixture. With a league match next
week we will hopefully have a full 3 teams next week.