Saturday 26th August & Sunday 27th
August 2006
Old Wilsonians v New
Ash Green
Saturday 26th August 2006
Kent League
Match - 100 Overs
New Ash Green
(20 points) 143-9 (50 overs)
Old Wilsonians (4 points) 99 all out (34 overs)
New Ash Green won by 44 runs.
A close to full strength New Ash Green side, buoyed by the one
off return of Kevin Ginn, completed their most
comfortable victory of the season. Match report courtesy of Old Wilsonians (or possibly a Hayes branch of the Pete Burke
Fan Club), shamelessly cut & pasted from the KCL website!
Peter
Burke was expecting to be playing for New Ash Green's 2nd X1 this
week but when he took three wickets with his first four balls he made his side
realise, for the second time in the match, how foolish it would have been for
them to have left him at home. Earlier he had put on 37 vital runs in an
unbroken last wicket partnership with Vic Mayers,
their contributions being 25 and 12 respectively. Coming together with ten overs remaining, they not only negotiated these
successfully but pushed their side's total to a respectable 143 on a wicket
which favoured the bowlers.
It
was, therefore, perhaps fitting that Burke should be the main beneficiary with
match winning figures of 4 for 21, and apt, too, that Mayers
should make the initial inroads into the Old Wilsonians'
innings by claiming the first wicket.
Looking
at the broader picture, New Ash Green must now cherish real hopes of avoiding
relegation. They entertain Rodmersham in their final
game of the season next week, whilst the OWs are in
serious relegation trouble following Old Brockleians'
victory at Upchurch. The Hayes based Club must now win their last game, against
Bexleyheath, and hope that Brockleains do not have a
similar victory at Sidcup.
New
Ash Green won this game for, in conditions not conducive to batting, in Dan
Walton (22) Andy Mayers (33) and the aforementioned
Burke, they did have three batsmen worthy of the name whilst, in comparison,
the Old Boys could only boast Paul Kendrick (28), although Karim
Mir (18 n.o), Doug Forbes (15) and Ollie Lovelock
(11) did at least show a bit of resilience. Forbes, in particular, was
unfortunate to be on the losing side as his performance with the ball, 4 for
26, had done much to curtail the visitors' ambitions.
Click HERE for latest league table.
Tonbridge II v New Ash Green II
Saturday 26th August 2006
Mid-Kent
League Match - 56 Overs
New Ash Green
(4 points) 122-8 (28 overs)
Tonbridge (19 points) 124-3 (26.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 7 wickets.
Heavy showers in the morning and just before the start left the
Tonbridge ground very soggy. Although the pitch itself was covered the rest of
the square was soaked, and with conditions hardly conducive to drying their
seemed little hope. However a series of grey clouds passed over without
producing further rain, and the covers were taken off. This revealed a green
but hard pitch, unfortunately covered in several wet patches where the covers
had leaked. However with the youth element of both sides playing improvised
games on the outfield and clearly raring to go a decision was made to start a
reduced overs match and hope for the best. No one
expected the game to get very far, but as it turned out further rain stayed
away entirely and the game was completed.
Tonbridge put New Ash Green in, and as expected the wicket seamed
considerably, especially off the damp patches. However the bounce was true and
even, and the ball came onto the bat well, so that the bowlers were punished if
the put anything off a good line and length, and Tonbridge’s young openers Matt
Smiles and Tom Moore did rather too much of that. Matthew Quantrill
in particular enjoyed the ball coming onto the bat and raced away to 28 at
better than a run a ball. Scott McKechnie struggled
slightly more with the timing before being first out when an opening stand of
37 was ended in the 8th over, and The
advent of the more experienced Ian Moore and Peter French further put the brake
on the scoring. French had a remarkable first four overs,
not conceding a run and taking the wickets of Olly
Harding, David Baker (first ball) and then Quantrill
who failed to time a pull from a long hop and was caught at mid-wicket for 36. With
Matt Bushe falling at the other end soon afterwards
the wheels seemed to have come off the New Ash Green innings, but Arif Shaikh counter-attacked with
vigour. He was lucky to avoid being caught early on when a skyer
was just out of the fielder’s reach, but after that he picked his spot well and
destroyed French’s figures by taking 26 from his last three overs.
He was given good support by John Howland, who nipped the ball around well for
singles and twos before being run out for 9. Joe Elisak
and Keith Bushell didn’t fare so well, but Shaikh kept pushing to the end, a superb off drive for 4
from the last ball leaving him with 49*.
A total of 122 was more than New Ash
Green have managed in 46 overs for most of the
season, but with the wicket drying all the time it was crucial that they didn’t
bowl too many loose balls. Initially Graeme Poole and Keith Bushell
did keep things tight, but skilful batting from Ron Helyar
and Colin Jenner kept the run rate ticking over
steadily and the bowling wasn’t quite tight enough to tie them down. Add that
to some misfortune as Keith Bushell was twice top
edged just out of fielders’ reach and New Ash Green weren’t quite able to turn
the screw. Tonbridge were never ahead of the run rate, but with no wickets lost
they always had plenty in hand.
Click HERE for latest league table.
FAMILY FUN DAY
Sunday 27th August 2006
Despite the doubtful weather forecast the Family Fun Day took
place without a hint of rain, and although the overall turnout was a touch
disappointing, particularly from senior members of the club, the day was a huge
success, for which a huge vote of thanks has to go to all those involved with
the organisation, particularly Matthew Scanlan for
his overall masterminding of the day.
The six-a-side cricket formed the centrepiece of the day, with
four teams of mixed ability taking part using Kwik
cricket plastic bats and a wind ball. Each team played all the others, and all
won at least one game with Matthew Scanlan’s team
winning all its games and taking the medals. A pitch into the bucket contest
was won early by Joe Elisak and a barbecue supplied
burgers and sausages to various hungry mouths, well marshalled by Gill and
Keith Bushell, with some assistance from the club
captain! The egg throwing as usual attracted keen participation from the
younger members and one or two press-ganged senior members, with the leading
contenders making throws (and catches) of about 25 yards and a number of
remarkably bouncy eggs flying from less agile hands. Luke Shaw and Joe Elisak set the early pace with 22, a score that was later
matched by Luke in a new partnership with Anthony Scanlan,
but this score was eventually good enough only for second place behind the 24
scored by Ben Cooke and Matthew Quantrill.
The day was rounded off with part two of the Scanny
& Jolly Evening of Entertainment, which saw five teams sit down to a quiz
with some added rounds based on aged TV game shows. The Quantrill/Bushe
coalition ‘Thunderstorm’ and the Oliver family based ‘Weather Girls’ emerged as
the main contenders, with Thunderstorm suffering a setback when they scored a
big fat zero on the first line of songs round. There better general knowledge in
other subjects saw them fight back to be just one point behind entering the
final round – Scanny’s Surprise. This turned out to
be a contest for one team member to eat three dry crackers and drink half a
pint of milk in the fastest time. Scott McKechnie
emerged triumphant from this round, a success which enabled his team The Good,
The Bad and The Ugly (no prizes for guessing which one Scott was) to leapfrog
into second place as Matt Bushe’s confidence going
into the round proved sorely misplaced and he trailed in last, leaving the Weather
Girls triumphant overall. An impressive array of raffle prizes was given away,
with Felix Quantrill kindly drawing his father’s
ticket for the second prize and getting his reward when his father ignored the
alcohol and chose the box of chocolates.
All in all it was a good end to a successful day, with the only
hope being that a few more club members and friends might participate next
year.