Saturday 25th June & Sunday 26th June 2005
New Ash Green v Farningham
Saturday 25th June 2005
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(20 points) 170-9 (50 overs)
Farningham (5 points) 125 all out (47.5 overs)
New Ash Green won by 45 runs.
With no second team game New Ash Green had 14 players to choose
from for the first XI game, but still could not find an umpire. The overcast
conditions meant the pitch was still damp, and Farningham, gifted the toss, had no hesitation in inserting
New Ash Green, even after being told that two of the home players had yet to
arrive. It looked likely to be a good decision when the 5th ball of
Dave Ward’s opening over cut back at Andrew Cox and he got a thin edge to the
keeper. With Vic Mayers still not present Matt Scanlan joined 2nd XI captain Matthew Quantrill at the crease, and the two set about building the
foundations for an attack on the change bowlers later in the innings. With the
ball still doing plenty of the wicket they played with
great resolution, surrounded by close fielders, Scanlan
in particular performing well in a role he is not used to and continuing his
development as a first XI player. The pair had carried the score to 23 in the
17th over when Quantrill cut a short wide
one from Ward straight to cover. Vic Mayers had by
now arrived, and with the early enthusiasm of the bowlers and fielders now
blunted he and Scanlan were able to up the scoring
rate a touch. Scanlan was eventually caught in the
gully from a ball from Ward that jumped at him and took the shoulder of the bat
and Mayers was bowled by Cuthbertson,
frustrated to have received several good balls in succession. By now Ward had bowled
through and the change bowlers were proving easier to hit, as James Hewitt and
Simon Duke built a partnership of 56 for the 5th wicket. Hewitt took
advantage of his promotion to number 5 to play a number of big hits over the
top, culminating in a big straight six. After the six he seemed to slightly
lose his timing, reaching 50 before eventually holing out in the deep for 56.
The tail all kept the score turning over, and in the end it looked as if New
Ash Green had timed their attack to perfection, the overs
running out just before the wickets.
170 looked a good total in the conditions, and when Andy Cox’s
second ball lifted viciously to take Graham Cuthbertson’s
gloves New Ash Green were full of confidence. Although they were in some
trouble against Cox and Micky Sumner Farningham continued to put away anything they could, and
their scoring rate was consistently up with that required in the first half of
their innings. Every time they started to look comfortable, though, another
wicket would fall, with Sumner taking Freedman’s gloves with a lifter then bowling
Evans when he seemed to unnecessarily look to play across the line. Sumner’s
pace was also causing problems for Vaughan John behind the stumps, catching him
on an already injured finger a couple of times. With an instant replacement
available New Ash Green switched to the match’s 4th keeper, Farningham also having changed keepers in their innings and
Matthew Quantrill took over behind the stumps. He was
in the game almost immediately, picking up Sumner’s third wicket in a spell of
3-23. With James Hewitt now tying down one end, bowling 10 overs
for just 16 runs Vic Mayers came on, and after a
couple of short balls initially started to find a better length and extract plenty
of pace and movement off a good length. 64-4 at the mid-innings drinks break
looked favourable for New Ash Green and shortly afterwards Mayers
removed the persistent Rob Short caught and bowled for 22, and Kevin Greenhead
caught behind for5 and it was 67-6 with 21 overs
remaining. That should have been game set and match for New Ash Green, but what
had been a trickle of dropped and missed catches turned into a deluge, with at
least 8 going down and a few more being near enough to fielders to have been
classed as missed chances. Sean Bensley and Graham
Parkinson were the prime beneficiaries, putting on 33 for the 7th wicket
before Cox, who had returned to bowl spin, beat Parkinson with a quicker ball
and bowled him. Another 25 were added for the 8th wicket, and
although a Farningham victory never looked likely it
began to look as if New Ash green would have to settle for the winning draw.
Cox reverted to pace bowling, a difficult proposition in the gloom, but initially
had little luck, beating the bat and just missing the stumps on a number of
occasions. At the other end Matt Scanlan was given a
chance to breathe new life into his spin bowling career, and having started
with a couple of terrible two bounce balls began to settle into a decent line
and length, getting some turn. With just 5 overs remaining
and 3 wickets still needed Cox finally made the breakthrough, bowling Bensley, and in the next over Scanlan
turned one through John Collins defences and bowled him. With Cox still
generating pace and bounce New Ash Green finally scented victory again, and
with some irony it came with a catch, Cox taking the shoulder of Tauzky’s bat to get a relatively gentle catch to Scanlan in the gully. It was in some ways ironic that New
Ash Green should win with a catch, that being by far the weakest part of their
game, but appropriate that Scanlan should take it in
a game where he had done much to show that he can fulfil his potential to be a
genuine 1st XI player.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green v
Sunday 26th June 2005
Medway Sunday
League Match - 40 Overs per side
For some reason vast numbers of people seem to have chosen this
weekend to be away, and only 5 players were definitely available for this
match. Sadly it therefore had to be cancelled, a shame because it was against
one of the teams lower down the table, and would have given the Sunday team a
more competitive match than the last couple against sides taking the Sunday
league very seriously.
Click HERE for latest league table.