Saturday 1st July & Sunday 2nd July 2006

Rodmersham v New Ash Green
Saturday 1st July 2006

Kent League Match - 100 Overs

Rodmersham (20 points) 195-9 dec. (50 overs)
New Ash Green (5 points) 126 all out (43.3 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 59 runs.

Both teams were suffering from World Cup fever and had had to cancel their second XI games – as a result both sides were a mixture of first and 2nd XI players. Rodmersham, though, had the greater number of first team players, and the stronger second XI, so they held the advantage, despite losing one player to a rather unpleasantly painful accident in the nets before the game, when a ball driven back at groin height was not stopped with the hands. Dangerous thing practice, as Glen McGrath and Matthew Hoggard can testify, so New Ash Green choose to avoid it assiduously. Rodmersham chose to bat first, and made a steady start against Hewitt and Cox, with just one wicket falling early on, though each bowler took another wicket towards the end of their spells with the score in the sixties. The middle order then pushed on a bit, taking advantage of New Ash Green’s lack of depth in bowling. Andy Mayers was severely punished for anything off target, and Lee Saunders on his first team debut also learnt that he couldn’t get away with loose balls at this level. Vic Mayers, however, was magnificent, bowling a full 15 over spell at good pace and with very few loose balls, picking up 4-41 as the brakes were put on the Rodmersham tail. The score was kept under 200, and New Ash Green gained maximum bowling bonus points by picking up 9 wickets.

Matthew Quantrill and James Hewitt opened the reply, Quantrill quickly taking advantage of the poor form of Lee Gregory for Rodmersham – a four off the first ball followed by three more whenever he strayed. Just as things were looking promising for New Ash Green Quantrill inside edged one onto his stumps from Darren Nokes, a dismissal that was repeated by Andy Mayers and later (from a change bowler) by James Hewitt. This was unfortunate for New Ash Green as with Gregory out of sorts Rodmersham’s bowling seemed none too threatening and a win was not out of their reach had one of their main batsmen stayed long enough to build an innings. However after Andy Cox’s dismissal for 42 only Scott McKechnie reached double figures, and he took his time to do so. The tail fell away, but Lee Saunders battled bravely to bring up a batting bonus point, accompanied by Kieron Poole in a 5 run last wicket stand before Saunders was last out for 8. A disappointing result when more had seemed potentially within reach, but there were some encouraging signs for the future – a summary that rather mirrored England’s world cup performance against Portugal on the same day.

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New Ash Green II v Macknade II
Saturday1st July 2006

Mid-Kent League Match - 92 Overs

New Ash Green conceded

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GEC v New Ash Green
Sunday 2nd July 2006

Medway Sunday League Match - 40 Overs per side

GEC (6 points) 178 all out (37.2 overs)
New Ash Green (4 points) 37 all out (15.4
overs)
New Ash Green lost by 167 runs.

New Ash Green’s Sunday league side took a step forward in one way by bowling out an opposition for the first time this season, though in some ways that was disappointing after having GEC struggling at 67-6. John Harley took 3-31 and Keith Bushell 2-26, with others chipping in later on. The New Ash Green reply did better last year’s 29, thanks to John Harley’s 9 at number 11, but that aside there was not a great deal to be said for it, an initial spell of resistance by Matt Bushe and Scott Mckechnie being followed by one wicket an over until they were all out!

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