Macknade (20 points) 273-7 dec. (42.1 overs)
New Ash Green (3 points) 63 all out (23 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 210 runs

Hit hard by post tour hang over, the holiday season and the defection of several players to watch the Twenty20 finals, not to mention last minute injuries, this was a real struggle for 10 man New Ash Green. Micky Sumner bowled well, as seems to be the norm at the moment, but although Paul Sumner and Ian Martin picked up 2 wickets each and Martin even bowled two maidens the other bowlers were all expensive. Lee Rigden crashed his way to 127 and Macknade declared at the fall of the seventh wicket on 273 with nearly 8 overs unused.

273 was, or course, well out of New Ash Green's reach, but after fielding in the hot sun they struggled to make the score look respectable in any way at all. Ian Martin made 14 and Matt Scanlan a good looking 21, but no one else could reach double figures and they subsided to 63 all out with the last three all making ducks.

Click here for full scorecard.

Click here for latest league table

New Ash Green (6 points) 114 all out (43.3 overs)
Pembury (20 points) 118-5 (38.3 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5 wickets

With both sides well short of full strength - New Ash Green missing all four of the bowlers who had bowled Pembury out for 97 earlier in the season - this was anyone's game. Pembury won the toss and put New Ash Green in, and with only 9 men on the field their bowling looked innocuous with even less to follow. Alan Hughes was accurate as ever, but posed little threat when there seemed no need to score runs off him. However the arrival after 3 overs of the remaining two members of the team changed the picture somewhat. John Howland went fairly early to Hughes, and the new arrivals, Bidder and Boakes both proved to be useful bowlers. Matthew Quantrill and Joe Elisak put on 38 with Elisak the more aggressive before eventually perishing for 21. After that all the batsmen struggled, and although Quantrill stayed for most of the innings he was not timing the ball well and was unable to take risks as wickets tumbled at the other end. Eventually having reached a very slow 51 he did fall trying to force the pace at the end of the innings, and all that remained was a brief flurry from Keith Bushell and the chance for Dom Elisak, a last minute reserve, to make his senior team debut.

Despite all the bowlers they were missing New Ash Green still had realistic hopes, knowing that Pembury were missing most of their regular batsmen. Keith Bushell continued in good form with an economical opening spell of 3-20 in 12 overs, and with Graeme Poole also contributing a wicket they reduced Pembury to 40-4. Crucially, though, they missed chances to remove Richard Bidder, and he went on to hold the innings together with 39 not out. David Baker bowled a useful 12 over spell, his league debut as a bowler, but the only other wicket came from a run out before young Deeyam Patel overcame a nervous start to play an increasing range of quality shots in taking Pembury to victory with overs in hand.

Click here for full scorecard.

Click here for latest league table

High Halstow 246-8 dec. (39.2 overs)
New Ash Green 184 all out (34 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 52 runs

With High Halstow fielding 5 of the Saturday first XI that had defeated the New Ash Green first XI the previous week (New Ash Green had none) this was always going to be a tough ask, but New Ash Green did manage to achieve some respectability. Dan Lewsey started economically, but Tim Hanman, given a chance to open for High Halstow was not in the mood to be tied down. He was soon attacking brutally, and New Ash Green paid for a series of missed chances of varying degrees of difficulty, putting him down four times on his way to 122 before he was eventually stumped, the one bright spell in a short and expensive spell of spin from Marc Klus. After that David Baker, Matt Dehaney and Kieran Poole worked their way through the wickets, aided by an interesting display of wicket keeping from Matthew Quantrill. Following on from his straightforward stumping of Hanman he also took a good catch standing up to Matt Dehaney, but was less tidy in taking a stumping off David Baker which rebounded off gloves, pads and elbow before bouncing back onto the stumps, and an even more unusual catch off Kieran Poole which he held between his knees having failed to hold the ball with his gloves at all. In the end High Halstow's captain chose to declare at the fall of the eigth wicket rather than come out and face the last four balls himself, but the total was considerably lower than it had looked like it might be at one stage.

With Quantrill, Klus and Dehaney in the side New Ash Green's batting line up was stronger than on the average Sunday, and High Halstow, unlike some teams in the league, were prepared to give a go to various bowlers. Skipper Steve Lapthorn, an opening batsman on Saturdays, opened the bowling himself with reasonably tidy seam, while at the other end Craig Brandwood produced a rather more mixed three overs. Matt Bushe and Marc Klus perished early to Lapthorn, but Quantrill was for once this season timing the bad balls from early on in the innings and the scoring rate remained high. David Baker made 13 before becoming Lapthorn's third victim with the score on 46 in the 7th over, and James Porter didn't last long, but Elliott Harris blasted a few powerful boundaries in helping to add 44 for the 5th wicket and Matt Dehaney helped to put on another 42 for the 6th wicket. Although wickets were falling the run rate had remained high and New Ash Green had done enough to make High Halstow turn to first team bowlers spinner Dave Coyle and fast bowler Tom Hanman at the halfway stage of the innings. Although not bowling flat out Hanman still generated some pace, but Dehaney was not initimidated, hooking his first, short, ball towards square leg. The two fielders in that direction were making something of a mess of things, but while they were doing so Dehaney had lost his balance and fallen on his wicket to be out for 22. Still the resistance wasn't over with Kieran Poole staying with Quantrill, and indeed as High Halstow tried to keep him on strike making plenty of runs of his own. They had added another 29 and High Halstow were just beginning to show the first signs of genuine worry when Quantrill attempted to run Hanman away and got a bottom edge onto the stumps for 80. Kieran Poole continued to bat well before being out for 19, but the innings subsided fairly quickly, ending just 52 runs short with six overs still remining.

Click here for full scorecard.

Click here for latest league table