Saturday 30th July 2005

New Ash Green v Old Brockleians
Saturday 30th July 2005

Kent League Match - 100 Overs

Old Brockleians (20 points) 197-7 (50 overs)
New Ash Green (3 points) 99-9 (37.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 98 runs.

Heavy rain in the week leading up to the game made for a green wicket, but the morning preparation had been thorough and the pitch was reasonably firm. Despite not having an umpire New Ash Green somehow managed to win the toss and insert OB’s, and Micky Sumner and Andy Cox seemed well placed to exploit the green wicket. However it was not to be New Ash Green’s day in many ways, and the biggest slice of bad luck came in the 4th over when Hazelton chipped the first ball he faced from Andy Cox gently back towards him, and Cox diving forward jammed his finger on ball and ground managing to rip off his nail and break his finger. He had to go to casualty and played no further part in the game. Ben Cooke took part in his first Kent League 1st team game as substitute, and fielded very ably, but nothing could make up for the loss of a main bowler and batsman so early in the game. James Hewitt took over from Cox, and conceded just one scoring shot (a six) in his first 5 overs. Sumner also bowled tidily and the batsmen never got on top despite a number of missed chances by various fielders. Hewitt did pick up 4-60, Sumner bowled well for 1-42 and Vic Mayers bowled an excellent spell to take 2-26 in 10 overs, but OB’s kept enough wickets in hand to be able to up the rate a bit at the end and reach 197 by the end of their 50 overs.

In reply New Ash Green struggled from the start against the opening pair of James Bates and Conal Howles, soon being 9-3. Things didn’t get better until Simon Duke and Kieran Hoddinott, coming together at 36-6, saw off the opening pair, only Matt Scanlan batting 46 balls for his 10 making any really determined stand against them. Hoddinott having done well to survive the last few overs from the top bowlers then extraordinarily decided to reverse sweep the first ball from the change bowling, despite there being at least 4 men fielding behind square on the off side. He hit the shot well but managed to put it straight into the hands of one of those fielders to leave the score 48-7. Duke and Micky Sumner then finally showed some grit, dealing sensibly with the change bowling and hitting a few good shots as well to nearly double the score, putting on 47 for the 8th wicket. Although victory never looked likely a draw was beginning to look very possible, and even more likely was the possibility of an incomplete game as the rain began to get steadily heavier. There was already some debate going on as to whether the game should still be going on when Sumner was finally out for 26, and then shortly afterwards Duke’s long and patient innings ended on 19. Andy Cox had returned from hospital with his finger splinted, but decided not to go out to bat with Arron Dodson, though as it turned out it might well have been worth his while doing so because within a minute of the last wicket falling the rain became so heavy that there could have been no further debate about carrying on – something which somehow summed up New Ash Green’s luck on the day.

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