Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th July 2005

New Ash Green v Upchurch
Saturday 16th July 2005

Kent League Match - 100 Overs

Upchurch (13 points) 218-8 dec. (48.5 overs)
New Ash Green (5 points) 150-7 (51 overs)
New Ash Green losing draw.

Due to the rather short 2^nd XI game (see below) only a short distance away I saw most of the 2^nd half of this match, and heard quite a bit about the 1^st half, but if anyone wants to add a bit more to the report their input would be most welcome.

Upchurch, captained by Dean Headley, arrived in plenty of time for the start, unlike most of the New Ash Green side, though to be fair several of the NAG players had considerable distance to travel, not least Andy Cox who flew in from New York for the game. New Ash Green were without an umpire, so Upchurch were able to choose to bat first in hot conditions on a good looking wicket. Nonetheless Andy Cox and Micky Sumner seem to have kept them in check early on, with Cox getting two early breakthroughs and apparently bowling his first spell of 7 overs for about 8 runs. Pete Burke at first change also produced an economical spell, and took a wicket, but that brought Headley to the wicket, and he scored at considerably greater pace than the previous batsmen, rattling up 62 in just 45 balls. Vic Mayers was expensive, and short lived experiments with the bowling of Scanlan and Chris Hoddinott were also unproductive. Cox and Sumner returned to bowl out, and although Cox got one more wicket both bowlers had their figures somewhat spoilt by Headley’s onslaught. At 217-4 with 3 overs left Upchurch would no doubt have been aiming to reach 250, but they then collapsed in a manner more reminiscent of their hosts, losing 4 wickets for 1 run and declaring largely because the clatter of wickets had left them with no padded up batsmen.

With Cox suffering from jetlag a new opening partnership of Kieran Hoddinott and Marc Klus (who had had 4 days to get over his own flight from New Zealand) led the New Ash Green reply. They batted very respectably, putting on 62 for the first wicket and seeing off the opening bowlers, although falling somewhat behind the run rate. The contrasting change bowlers were former England opening bowler Headley and 14 year old leg spinner Michael Hales, but it turned out to be the junior member of the pair who was the more successful. Before his success though, the crowd were treated to what must surely be the season’s champagne moment when Kieran Hoddinott faced Headley. Klus having seen off Headley’s first over, Hoddinott faced the first ball of his second. He claimed afterwards that his actions were motivated purely by fear of Headley’s pace and an unwillingness to get in line, but to the first ball he faced he stepped outside leg stump and carved Headley over backward point for 4. The next ball was a yorker that he missed but to the third ball he repeated the shot, hit even harder, over the boundary and away into the bushes some 30-40 yards away, to huge cheers from the crowd. For the most part Headley played the game in excellent spirit, but clearly his competitive instincts weren’t going to stand for this treatment, and the next ball was a bouncer that followed Hoddinott as he backed away to leg and whistled past his nose, being called a wide and carrying through hard and high enough that the keeper couldn’t take it cleanly and the batsmen were able to run a bye. Hoddinott’s next ball was against young Michael Hales, and he went down the wicket, swished and missed, being stumped, by some distance, for 23. Allegedly this was a deliberate action as he feared for his safety if he had had to face Headley again! The end of the dogged 1^st wicket stand started something of a collapse for New Ash Green. Hales was giving the ball flight, bowling with good line and length and getting some turn, but he was certainly aided by the cavalier fashion in which some of the home side tried to play him. Perhaps it was the pressure of having Headley at the other end, but careless shots helped Hales to figures of 5-42 off 15 overs, while Headley picked up just one wicket, the unfortunate Dan Walton losing his off stump first ball, at a cost of one more run than Hales. From 62-0 New Ash Green collapsed to 100-6, but Dave Craddock and Andy Cox saw off the pairing of Headley and Hales and kept the score ticking over. They put on 50 for the 7^th wicket to reach the second bonus batting point in the last over before Craddock holed out for 19 after his best innings for New Ash Green to date. Cox finished on 43* to add to his 4 wickets and prove that lack of sleep is no inhibitor in playing good cricket, and another draw against a top of the table side proved that New Ash Green are not completely easy pickings!

Click HERE for full Scorecard

Click HERE for latest league table.

New ifield II v New Ash Green II
Saturday 16th July 2005

Mid-Kent League Match - 92 Overs

New Ash Green (3 points) 76 all out (39 overs)
New Ifield (20 points) 78-2 (9.2 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 8 wickets.

Possibly the less said about this game the better….

The wicket looked reasonable – very grassy, but firm and fairly even. On a hot day New Ash Green had little hesitation in choosing to bat on winning the toss, but the opening pair of Matthew Quantrill and Andy Stuart were soon finding that looks can be deceptive. The bounce turned out to be wildly variable. Both played reasonably comfortably, but found timing difficult, and it took them until the 19^th over to reach 40 before Quantrill went to cut a wide long hop from Alan Taylor and was brilliantly caught by Stephen Bage diving one handed to his right in the covers. That started a collapse in which Taylor’s relatively innocuous spin achieved figures of 7-23 and only Stuart, with 19, and Keith Bushell with 13* reached double figures. New Ifield only had 3 main bowlers it seemed, and there were some hopes that the last partnership of Bushell and Bushe might make some runs against the change bowlers at the end, but to Taylor’s last ball Bushe was a 3^rd LBW victim, though the first to question the decision.

With only 76 on the board New Ash Green were hoping to exploit variable bounce with the new ball by using the height of Paul Sumner and Graeme Poole to open the bowling. There was hope for a moment when Sumner had New Ifield captain Vic Outtar caught in the 1^st over, and he later bowled the other opener Andy Makoni, but New Ifield had clearly decided to try to counteract the difficulty with the pitch by going on the attack, and they were aided in this by too many loose balls from New Ash Green. Bage particularly punished anything in the arc and New Ifield raced to victory in the 10th over.

Click HERE for full Scorecard

Click HERE for latest league table.

Lordswood v New Ash Green
Sunday 17th July 2005

Medway Sunday League Match - 40 Overs per side

New Ash Green (3 points) 195 all out (39.4 overs)
Lordswood (8 points) 196-4 (35.5 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 6 wickets.

A first mention from Sunday should go to the colts team, who having started the season struggling for numbers and being heavily beaten every match have had some close results in the last couple of weeks and today finally won their first game, successfully chasing 96 to beat High Halstow. Congratulations to all of them and to Matt Bushe for his work with them, let’s hope they can set an example for the senior teams to follow!

The Sunday side against Lordswood in fact had a unique problem this season – they had to leave players out. Even after Andy Payne and Matt Scanlan had dropped out from those thought to be available there were still a number of reserves even without chasing some of the occasionals. It was probably also the strongest side of the season, and it needed to be against unbeaten league leaders Lordswood. Playing on Lordswood’s first pitch New Ash Green were delighted when Alan Carter won the toss and confidently chose to bat. On a pitch which did nothing for any of the bowlers except to very occasionally keep low, and in very hot weather, it was definitely not a day to be in the field. Matthew Quantrill had a new opening partner in Aron Dodson, who turned out to be a revelation. Seemingly inspired by the responsibility of opening he played straight and did not look out of place as an opener, particularly when sending a perfectly executed off drive skimming to the boundary. Unfortunately he got slightly carried away and tried to repeat the shot next ball, nicking to the keeper, but he showed previously hidden potential as a genuine batting prospect for the future. Marc Klus then joined Quantrill in the key partnership, and the pair looked solid and as if they could make a big score until Klus got a leading edge and was caught for 12. Dan Lewsey got a let off almost immediately. On a pair for the weekend, he tried to take on the spin of Phil Mayes in his first over and lofted the ball straight to mid-off. Fortunately for him the fielder had dislocated his finger the previous day and fumbled the catch, allowing him to take two and two balls later to repeat the shot with greater effect, clearing the fielder and getting 4. He made 22 of a partnership of 40 for the third wicket before finding a fielder who could catch. Quantrill meanwhile was batting solidly, keeping the scoring ticking over comfortably at around 4 an over, and he was now joined by Ben Cooke. Together they put on 67 for the 4^th wicket, Cooke making 8 including a four past point, and they were within sight of the season’s best partnership for the 4^th wicket when Cooke was run out by a direct hit from third man as they tried to take risks to increase the run rate. Quantrill was now batting more aggressively with time running out, just six overs remaining when Cooke was 4^th out. New Ash Green old boy Clive Elliott had come on to bowl, and was putting the ball on a consistent line and length to the new batsmen, though he bowled some looser balls to Quantrill under pressure from the batsman with his eye in. Yorker length balls on middle stump accounted for Bushe and Holliday, and Micky Sumner and Alan Carter then edged behind to successive balls from Singh, Carter completing a king pair for the weekend (that is he was out first ball both days for the uninitiated) Keith Bushell survived the hat trick ball, which was virtually a wide, but in the last over he was also beaten by Elliott’s yorker, and Graeme Poole played on first ball to also complete a pair for the weekend. Quantrill was left unbeaten on 110, and the remarkable loss of 6 wickets in the space of the last 34 balls meant he had achieved the rare feat of carrying his bat through the innings.

195 was the best score of the season for the Sunday side, but on a wicket of that quality it was going to take some remarkably inept batting for them to spring a surprise and beat the league leaders. Micky Sumner did his best, getting considerably more out of the wicket with an old ball than Lordswood’s bowlers had done with a new one, and he picked up both openers, while Keith Bushell was also fairly tidy after a couple of loose ones in his first couple of overs. Graeme Poole also picked up a couple of wickets courtesy of a good catch at backward square leg by Matt Bushe and a leg side stumping by Quantrill, but Lordswood had sufficient depth of batting not to be disturbed by these setbacks, and they were able to cruise to a fairly comfortable win without undue risks. Nonethelesss this was a considerably improved display against one of the top sides compared to the destruction by Sherwood and GEC, and the game was also played in a good spirit and enjoyed by pretty much all who played, even Alan Carter. More Sunday cricket of this nature would make selection problems of the pleasant kind more common in the future!

Click HERE for full Scorecard

Click HERE for latest league table.

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