Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th
August 2005
Old Colfeians v New
Ash Green
Saturday 27th August 2005
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
Old Colfeians (4 points) 147 all out (49.4 overs)
New Ash Green (16 points) 148-8 (48.3 overs)
New Ash Green won by 2 wickets.
I would really like to get a full report on this game from
someone who was there, as it should go down as the season’s best result. (Full report from Andy
Stuart now received – see below, but I’m not going to waste the report I wrote –
this game is worth two reports in anyone’s book, or even more if anyone else
wants to contribute.) However from talking to some of those who were there and from
the scorecard I can report as follows….
With John Harding returning as umpire New Ash Green won the toss
and elected to bowl first, delaying the prospect of facing Colfeians
Sri Lanka ‘A’ bowler, allegedly clocked at over 88 mph on a speed gun. Micky Sumner and James Hewitt opened the bowling and bowled
through their 15 overs each, taking 1 wicket each and
being reasonably economical, Hewitt particularly conceding only 20 runs. Vic Mayers then took over one end and bowled a 10 spell,
picking up 3-33, including a stumping. Quite how that occurred I would love to
know, but Vaughan John obviously had a good day, conceding no byes in addition
to that stumping, while his opposite number conceded a crucial 20 byes. At the
other end Marc Klus had a short spell, when I am told
he bowled well though he was taken off after taking 0-18 in 4 overs and was replaced by Andy Stuart. Whether he benefited
from a desperate effort to improve the run rate or just bowled very well I
don’t know, but he finally had some luck taking his first wicket since early
May and going on to mop up the tail and finish with 5-27. For all the fact that
it has been very enjoyable mocking his failure to take wickets Andy deserves
some reward, though in passing it would have to be said that 4 of Colfeians bottom 5 batsmen did not bowl either, suggesting
they didn’t have the greatest depth.
I don’t know what the wicket was like, but given recent rain it
is unlikely it was the greatest of batting tracks, so while 147 was a good
result it is doubtful that a successful chase of 148 was to the forefront of
New Ash Green minds. Indeed a brief phone conversation with the 2nd
team elucidated the skipper’s view in about the 6th over: the quick
bowler had cleaned up the openers (Simon Duke and Andy Mayers
for 2 each) and although Matt Scanlan was playing him
very well we weren’t going to get the runs. Scanlan
did go on to make 21 before Wijesiriwardena got him,
and Dan Walton (with 6) and Vic Mayers (with 9) each
chipped in a little bit. At 59-5 the odds looked against New Ash Green, but
Marc Klus and Vaughan John (still having a good day)
put on 23 more before John was run out for 12. Andy Stuart, having made 6 and
added 12 more, became Wijesiriwardena’s 5th
victim (at a cost of 29 runs) but Marc Klus saw him
out before he could add to his league leading haul of wickets. (As an aside it
is worth noting that 4 of the 7 leading wicket takers in the
Andy Stuart’s Report:
NAG headed to Old Colfeians
with some trepidation and their concerns weren’t eased when it emerged that the
unconfirmed reports of Old Colfeians overseas player
being clocked at 88.5mph were in fact reference to his average pace during the
recent Sri Lankan A tour of South Africa!!!
Andy Stuart won the toss and had no hesitation
in inviting the hosts to bat first and at least give the New Ash Green batsman
a few extra hours to work out what additional padding they could muster against
the inevitable onslaught from the Kent League’s leading wicket taker!
Old Colfeians claimed
to be missing a couple of players, however they were as ever fielding four
Saturday teams, so you can rest assured there were certainly nothing but
serious cricketers standing in NAG’s way.
James Hewitt and Mick Sumner settled into good
lines and lengths from the start and both posed plenty of questions with
consistent swing and seam movement making life difficult for the Old Colfeians openers and both frequently beating the bat. With
the score at just 28 in the 15th over Sumner bowled Quilter (15) via his pads
and 7 overs later Hewitt struck as Scanlan held a catch at the 4th attempt to leave the hosts
40-2 from 22 overs. This brought Sri Lankan star Omesh to the crease to join skipper Pallet in a key period
of the game as the hosts tried everything to break the shackles imposed by
Hewitt and Sumner.
With Pallet trying to attack Sumner at every
opportunity a controversial moment that was so nearly decisive occurred. Stuart
positioned himself at a deep fly slip and didn’t have to wait long for a Pallet
haymaker to take the edge. Stuart who was outside the fielding circle
acrobatically took the speeding ball one handed above his head to the delight
(and astonishment!) of Sumner and his team mates. However, to everyone’s
amazement Pallet had run to the other end and was still there! As the NAG
players appealed in vain, the umpire said not out as Pallet insisted it was a
bump ball.
How a bump ball can fly 40 yards at such pace
via a damp surface is not only beyond belief but quite simply impossible.
However, despite the massive disappointment of such a crucial wicket, New Ash
Green continued to bowl and field as if their lives depended on it.
With Sumner (15-3-45-1) and Hewitt (15-5-20-1)
bowling through and completing their overs, Old Colfs had moved to 66-2 from 30 overs,
but with their key batsmen at the crease and 8 wickets in hand the inevitable
onslaught was about to commence.
Vic Mayers entered
the attack and just 3 balls later got one through the defence of Omesh to strike a key blow. The New Ash Green players were
careful not to celebrate too much for fear of upsetting him - Sumner was
rumoured to have offered to carry his bat off for him in an attempt to suck up
and spare himself from serious injury! With Pallett
enjoying his second life and trying to attack, Klus
was brought on in an attempt to entice him into a rash shot. Again this plan
nearly produced immediate success but with a chance going down it seemed Pallett’s luck would continue. However one big shot too
many saw Vic Mayers clean him up for 43, a crucial
wicket leaving Old Colfs 98-4 with just 12 overs left.
Stuart replaced Klus
and together with the impressive Mayers tried to keep
the Old Colfs middle order in check. Stuart didn’t
have to wait long before nipping one back to trap the dangerous Thomas lbw for
16. In the very next over Vaughan John capped a faultless display behind the
stumps throwing down the stumps for a stumping (run out?) off the bowling of Mayers (10-2-35-3) as
The wickets continued to tumble with Stuart
(5.4-0-27-5) taking the final 3 wickets and leaving the hosts 147 all out with
two balls to spare. Although possibly NAG’s best
bowling and all round fielding performance from their time in the Kent League
had restricted Old Colfs to just 147, no one from
either side seriously though that NAG’s fragile
batting line up could possibly threaten the score on a helpful wicket with an
international bowler in their ranks.
Andy Mayers and Simon
Duke drew the short straws and went out to confront the new ball onslaught from
Omesh. Mayers, going minus
a helmet against the advice from both his team mates and opposition, managed to
squirt the first ball of the innings for 2, before edging the second straight
into the hands of 1st slip, who shelled the chance. Although he survived the
rest of the over NAG’s worst fears were confirmed – Omesh was seriously quick (Hewitt was alleged to report
that he may even be quicker than Christmas of Yalding!)
though his pace was proving just as difficult for the Old Colfs
keeper and a regular supply of byes was keeping the scoreboard ticking.
Omesh didn’t take long to
find his range and bowled Mayers (2) and Duke (2) in
quick succession with thunderbolts to leave NAG reeling at 7-2 and expecting
another quick ending as surely no one could see off Omesh
for long??
How wrong we were as Matt Scanlan
with the technique and bravery of a seasoned pro played him with something
approaching ease. Solid on back and front foot and with Walton providing good
support, the pair combined in a gutsy 3rd wicket partnership of 19 before
Walton (6) gloved one behind off Shafique – a bowler
faster than most we face but positively pedestrian by comparison!
With his mentor and life coach gone, Scanlan continued the resistance and continued to frustrate
Omesh, even hooking him for 4, though in trying one
big shot too many Scanlan lost his off stump for 21.
Vic Mayers (9) was next to fall, unluckily being
adjudged LBW to Omesh by now bowling around the
wicket.
With the score 59-5 the out of form Klus and John at the crease and only the bowlers and Dodson
to come, all seemed lost. Old Colfeians scented
victory and decided to keep Omesh going in an attempt
to run through the rest of the NAG line up. Klus and
John combined to see out two Omesh maidens forcing
him to be withdrawn from the attack with just 3 overs
left. With the counter attack starting to take shape, disaster struck. Having
taken the score to 89 and ‘milked’ the change bowlers a mix up between Klus and John (12) saw the latter run out.
Again Old Colfes
turned to their trump card in an effort to run through the NAG tail. Although
Stuart (6) was beaten by a yorker, Hewitt negotiated
the next two balls and Klus was able to keep the
strike to comfortably play out his final two overs,
leaving the game finally balanced at 99-7, with 13 overs
remaining and Omesh (5-29) out of the attack. Klus and Hewitt edged NAG towards victory and put on 29
before Omesh was back in the game taking a running
catch off the top edge of Hewitt (11) to put the game back in the balance.
Sumner joined Klus
with only Dodson – yet to score a first team run in 5 attempts - to come! Klus (38*) playing the mature and restrained innings so
overdue continued to find the gaps and with Sumner providing solid support NAG
knocked the runs off one by one as the NAG contingent nervously cheered every
run and Dodson continued to turn varying degrees of white with every play and
miss and shy at the stumps.
It was almost fitting that Sumner (10*) edged
the winning runs off the bowling of Pallett to give
NAG a well deserved win following their best all round performance for many a
year.
The contributions from Scanlan
and Klus with the bat were heroic though the
foundation was laid by the performance that everyone gave in the field to set
up this famous victory.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green II v Bobbing Court II
Saturday 27th August 2005
Mid-Kent
League Match - 92 Overs
New Ash Green
(7 points) 60 all out (26.1 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5 wickets.
Another day, another
batting collapse for the 2nd XI. Put in on a green
surface which played fairly well but inevitably gave some movement off the seam
New Ash Green largely fell victim to the muscular pace of Paul Bedelle. Tall and muscular he bowled very straight, getting
a little movement down the slope. Unfortunately for New Ash Green most of the
top order batsmen failed to cope with this, Alan Carter being bowled in the
first over and Dan Lewsey in the 3rd. James
Oliver managed to miss a straight one at the other end, for a bit of variety,
and Matthew Quantrill, having looked well set and
picked off two successive fours from Bedelle with
good shots off his legs then tamely fenced a short one to gully. Graeme Poole
and Jasper Holliday could not cope with the straight balls either, and were
soon back in the pavilion, while Lee Saunders, who had batted very soundly for
his 9, fell at the other end LBW, so that when the opening bowlers were rested
(Bedelle with 5-24)
New Ash Green were 40-7. That rapidly became 40-8 when Ben Cooke was
bowled by the first ball from the change bowlers, and 42-9 when Kieran Poole
went in the 4th over of alternative bowling. Keith Bushell and Matt Bushe showed
some fight, Bushell making 16 and Bushe
4* (his 4th successive not out, though his first in which he has
scored) in a partnership of 18 for the last wicket which added a touch of
respectability to the score.
In response Bushell
and Dan Lewsey produced an excellent opening spell of
their own. Although they lacked Bedelle’s pace Bushell was accurate wile Lewsey
got good movement both off the pitch and in the air. It was only with a bit of
luck that Bobbing added 24 for the first wicket before Bushell
struck, Giles turning one to a delighted Jasper Holliday at square leg. Soon
afterwards Lewsey got his reward when
With the match over by teatime a beer match was
mooted, but with some of the opposition having some distance to travel the
offer was declined. Instead 10 New Ash Green players remained and played a
single wicket competition. Initial enthusiasm waned slightly as those knocked
out realised they would have to be content with fielding for a while, but there
were some keenly fought contests. Dan Lewsey knocked
Alan Carter out in the preliminary round and went on to triumph against Matt Bushe and Lee Saunders (with the aid of a dubious LBW
decision) on his way to victory in the final against Ben Cooke who had beaten
Graeme Poole and James Oliver to reach the final. For a while the final looked
tight, as Dan’s total looked under threat, he having decided to rest himself
for his bowling by declining to run much and missing out to balls fielded on
the boundaries. Ben was ahead of the run rate at the half way stage but was
then bowled in his third over to leave Dan triumphant.
Click HERE for latest league table.
Sunday August 28th 2005
New Ash Green v Borstal
Medway
Development League Match - 40 Overs
Borstal
conceded.
With
a full XI, an umpire, a scorer and at least three reserves keen to play, beautiful
August Bank Holiday weather greeted New Ash Green. So also, at about mid-day,
did the news that their opponents had conceded the game. Given how good the
weather was this did not deter the majority of the players, though, and ten of
the original 11, together with three reserves and two more colts players all
turned up to play a game amongst themselves. Captained by Ben Cooke and Kieran
Poole the two sides had an enjoyable and at times competitive game of which the
highlights seem to have been:
Blair Wilson making 58 from 29 balls, including 6-4-4-4-4-6 off
successive balls from Phil Markham. Blair came in after Alan Carter and was out before him – Alan
made 5!
Matt Bushe making 40 not out, including
a six.
Jasper Holliday taking 2 wickets, both stumpings
by Graeme Poole.
Aron
Dodson being given not out LBW when he looked plumb, but then being given run
out when he claimed he was well in, both on the same ball, by the same umpire!
Dan Lewsey making 55 not out off 57 balls and apparently
batting for the draw!
England
managing to make a run chase of 129 look difficult but managing to scrape home
against Australia to take the lead in the Ashes series, highlights of this
filtering through from various car radios as the afternoon wore on.
But
the biggest highlight of all was the fact that 15 players and numerous
supporters (scorers, tea makers and hangers on) enjoyed a game of cricket of
sorts in beautiful weather and lovely surroundings. It is exceedingly hard to
believe that a club that can generate that sort of enthusiasm from mostly young
players on two successive days cannot carry on next year – it is surely worth
making every effort to ensure the continued existence of the club. The first
team victory on Saturday even in the absence or lack of full fitness of several
players, showed the playing resources are not as thin as feared and the
keenness and ability of the young players promises much greater playing
strength in a couple of year’s time. Surely we must make every effort to keep
this going.