Saturday 13th May & Sunday 14th
May 2006
Sidcup v New Ash Green
Saturday 13th May 2006
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(20 points) 154 all out (49.1 overs)
Sidcup (5 points) 142 all out (46.3 overs)
New Ash Green won by 12 runs.
On a dreadful weekend for availability New Ash Green travelled
with 10 men only by taking Matt Bushe from the 2nd
XI on the morning of the game. Sidcup won the toss and put New Ash Green in,
and stand in captain James Hewitt elected to promote himself from number 11 the
previous week to open with Matt Scanlan. If some
eyebrows were raised at that they were going through the roof by the time
Hewitt was out in the 20th over and the opening stand had realised
73. Scanlan went on to make 55 and Dan Walton at number
3 remained unbeaten on 35, though the rest of the batting rather fell away.
They did, however, manage to use their full allocation of overs.
In reply a number of Sidcup batsmen got a strat,
but none went on to make a big score. Andy Sturat, in
his first game of the season took 4-36 and Hewitt 3-41. Luke Bowden bowled a
very tight spell, only a 6 in his last over letting Sidcup get as many as 26
runs from his 15 overs. The last two wickets made New
Ash Green sweat, but Andy Stuart had them both bowled to wrap up a 12 run win
with 3.3 overs to spare. A good win
with only 10 men and a number of regulars missing, and one which should boost
the confidence of the 1st XI and show that they have every right to
be playing at this level.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green II v New Ifield
II
Saturday 13th May 2006
Mid-Kent
League Match - 92 Overs
New Ash Green
(1 point) 21 all out (13.3 overs)
New Ifield (20 points) 22-1 (8.1 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 9 wickets.
It was deja vue all over again, as they say in football, for the second
XI. It was a struggle to raise a team at all, but they did get 10 bodies on to
the field, once Alan Carter and Dan Lewsey had
arrived half an hour late, for once with a genuine excuse. Vaughan John was
promised for later in the day, but his services were not required as once again
without an umpire New Ash Green were inserted on a wicket which was very damp
from overnight rain, also having been watered the previous day when it seemed
over dry from the week of glorious sunshine which proceeded the gloomy weekend.
Against a tidy opening attack of Tom Lawrence and Martin Lindenberg
it was a struggle to make any headway, and Graeme Poole, Lee Saunders and Joe Elisak soon perished. Jasper Holliday’s lodger, Stuart
Clarke, who had been called up at the last minute came in next,
and lasted long enough for New Ash Green’s 9th and 10th men to arrive, but when
Matthew Quantrill groped at a wide ball and offered a
simple edge to 2nd slip New Ash Green were in serious decline. Clarke middled a ball moments later, but
straight to a fielder, who parried it and caught the rebound, leaving New Ash
Green 11-5. There were brief hopes of a recovery from Luke Shaw and Alan
Carter, who put on 10 for the next wicket, Shaw hitting a couple of lovely
shots as he top scored with 7, but once they were out the end came quickly. Dan
Lewsey was out to his first ball of the season, and
although Jasper Holliday survived the hat trick ball it was a brief respite
before the rout was completed for 21, probably New Ash Green’s lowest ever
score.
There was some mitigation in the difficult
wicket, and Dan Lewsey and Luke Shaw showed that the
game might have looked less one sided if New Ash Green had had a chance to bat,
posing some difficulty with the ball. Shaw in particular bowled a very good
opening spell for a 13 year old, finishing with two maidens and picking up 1-8,
a good catch round the corner from Lee Saunders securing New Ash Green’s first
league point of the season. Rob Walker had the distinction of scoring 100% of
his side’s runs as he finished 22*.
While there are some excuses for their poor
league displays so far, playing against strong teams in difficult conditions,
there will be less excuse for New Ash Green next week as they take on fellow
strugglers Mote IV, and an improved performance is needed to get off the bottom
of the table.
Click HERE for latest league table.
New Ash Green v Eastchurch
Sunday 14th May 2006
Friendly Match
– 40 overs per side
Eastchurch 121 all out (37 overs)
New Ash Green 116-7 (40 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5 runs.
10 men seemed to be very much the theme of the
weekend for New Ash Green, and the late withdrawal through illness of David
Baker left them casting around for an 11th once again. With many of the
morning’s victorious colts XI already playing the only possible taker was Matt Scanlan, who had the small problem that his kit was in Arron Ward’s car and he had no transport to get to the
ground. He did make an appearance eventually in time to borrow some kit and
make a cameo batting appearance, but it was 10 men again who fielded first in a
40 over game with Eastchurch.
With the overcast conditions preventing the
wicket from drying out the Eastchurch batsmen
struggled to make much headway. John Harley struck in his first over, with an
edge to his stepson Scott McKechnie behind the stumps,
and Lee Saunders also bowled a tidy spell without luck, conceding just 10 runs
in his 5 overs. Harley was struck for a few towards
the end of his spell, but there were some mishits and
when Graeme Poole came onto replace Saunders one of those mishits
found its way to the covers.
In the conditions, though, 121 was not a bad
score, and the Eastchuch opening bowlers showed why
by bowling accurately at medium pace, making it very difficult to get the ball
away. After 10 overs the score had only reached 16,
and the first ball of the 11th brought the wicket of Matthew Quantrill,
and a further decline in the scoring rate. Three more maidens followed, along
with the wicket of Lee Saunders, and Luke Shaw didn’t last much longer. At this
point Matt Scanlan had arrived, and having borrowed
some kit entered the fray with the intention of lifting the scoring rate.
Flushed with success from his 50 the previous day he soon found conditions were
not suited to an aggressive innings, top edging one gently into the air second
ball just out of the fielder’s reach. He decided instead to knuckle down and
bat sensibly, and looked very solid for the next few overs.
In the meantime Scott McKechnie was beginning to
adapt to the conditions and hit the ball well, and it was he rather than Scanlan who started to lift the scoring rate towards that
that was required. Just as the two of them seemed to be in command Scanlan holed out at mid off, and Joe Elisak,
having played a couple of nice shots for no reward then put one straight at a
fielder. David Harley kept McKechnie company for a while though, and the game looked to be
tipping back New Ash Green’s way before Harley and Kieran Poole were bowled in
quick succession. McKechnie was now timing the ball
superbly, and finding the gaps in the packed field, but the slow pitch and
outfield still made fast scoring very difficult. Graeme Poole belied his
defensive reputation with some well struck shots, probably making more than the
10 the book shows him with, but he and McKechnie’s
inexperience in run chases told against them as they allowed the rate to just
creep up beyond what was possible in the last couple of overs.
The defects of limited overs cricket were apparent at
this stage as Eastchurch put 5 or 6 men on the
boundary and concentrated purely on preventing runs being scored rather than
trying to take wickets, though McKechnie’s excellent
striking of the ball still got New Ash Green into a position where a six off
the last ball would have made it a tie. This was an almost impossible task, and
it was very much to McKechnie’s credit that he was
more annoyed with having failed to win the game than pleased with his maiden 50
in men’s matches, to go with the unbeaten 50 he had made in the colts game in
the morning. Indeed he had spent the entirety of both the colts game and the
afternoon match on the field in pads and gloves, either batting or wicket
keeping, a grand total of 117 overs and 113 unbeaten
runs, and he thoroughly deserved all the plaudits he picked up. He will make a
welcome addition to the 2nd XI batting line up next Saturday!