Saturday 7th June and Sunday 8th June
Saturday 7th June and Sunday 8th June
Kent Feeder League (East) Match - 46 Overs per side
Blue Bell Hill (20 points) 126 all out (38.3 overs)
New Ash Green (13 points) 109 all out (33.1 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 17 runs
With something approaching a full strength side for the first time this season New Ash Green also seem to have been given a bit of a bonus by Blue Bell Hill electing to bat first in what must surely have been bowler friendly conditions. Certainly the scores seem to suggest as much, with no batsmen on either side making a big score, and only two getting past 20. In the end it was the extras count, wides in particular, that cost New Ash Green the game, though it seems that possibly having a home umpire at the bowlers end for the entire match may not have helped on that score. In any event Lee Saunders and Andy Mayers appear to have bowled tidily while Matt Dehaney and Vic Mayers took wickets, but perhaps the critical moment seems to have been Vic Mayers injuring himself when he had 2-8 in 7.2 overs. While the remaining bowlers, Matt Scanlan in particular with 3-6, mopped up the rest of the batting Vic's inability to bat properly may well have been costly.
With plenty of time 126 was certainly gettable, and after losing Ian Martin early Matt Scanlan (18) and Marc Klus (30) both made some runs, but the middle order failed to get going. Arron Ward was second highest scorer with 19, and Lee Saunders stayed to the end for 10 not out, but in the end the extra seventeen wides were the exact margin between the teams.
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Sherwood (9 points) 79 all out (39.5 overs)
New Ash Green (20 points) 80-6 (33.1 overs)
New Ash Green won by 4 wickets
More heavy rain in the days leading up to the match meant another slow pitch and another critical toss, and for the first time this season Matthew Quantrill won the toss and had no hesitation in choosing to bowl first. Initially help from the pitch didn’t look as if it would be enough – although John Harley picked up an early wicket Sherwood looked solid in reaching 39-1. Oddly, though, the longer the innings went on the less confident the batsmen seemed, and with Keith Bushell swinging the ball and Dan Lewsey on the spot they started to collapse, despite a number of missed catches by New Ash Green. Bushell took 3-16 in 12 overs, and Lewsey finished things off with 5-12 in 9.5, with Harley returning to pick up one wicket and end a stubborn 9th wicket stand which was the only resistance the middle and lower orders put up. Most remarkably Sherwood failed to score a single boundary in the entire innings.
Chasing only 80 to win in 52 overs New Ash Green were able to play the difficult conditions more carefully, knowing there was no pressure on them to score runs. A number of loose balls early on enabled them to get off to a good start, and to score a boundary as well, and soon afterwards a huge six when Matthew Quantrill almost put a leg side full toss into his own garden. Slower bowling on the slow wicket once again proved New Ash Green’s undoing. Joe Elisak eventually lost patience and swung across the line, and Quantrill and John Howland probably became over cautious and almost ground to a halt. Eventually Quantrill was bowled prodding at a ball with no real conviction, whereupon David Baker took the game by the scruff of the neck, changing the pace by scoring off every ball he faced until he had reached 17, including two straight drives for 4. With Just 11 needed to win New Ash Green then managed to donate a number of bonus points to their opposition by throwing away a succession of wickets, including Baker mishitting a full toss for 23, before Dan Lewsey, the not out king, brought up the winning runs with some 20 overs to spare.
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St. Mary Cray 249-7 (40 overs)
New Ash Green 181-5 (40 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 68 runs
For the second time this season the Sunday XI came up against a first class cricketer in the opposition, and unlike High Halstow's overseas player this was a cricketer who was taking his Sunday cricket seriously - rather too seriously really, as he killed the game as a contest. Nick Lee is captain of the Cambridge UCCE side this year, and scored 22 and 31 against Warwickshire less than 4 weeks ago, so an opening attack of John Harley and Lee Saunders probably held no fears for him, though what he made of the variable pitch and boggy outfield is anyone's guess. Initially he was cautious, and never got on top of Saunders, but all the other bowlers suffered for anything slightly loose. The other batsmen were almost a side issue, though the game between them and the New Ash Green bowlers was a much more even contest. John Harley and Dan Lewsey picked up two more wickets each in their contest to be the season's leading wicket taker and challenge Dave Harrington's club record 85 in a season, and Matt Bushe and Kieron Poole took a wicket apiece, with Bushe also collecting a run out with a sharp throw. Lee, however, was undeterred - this was a serious cricketer in every sense. Having reached 100 one might have thought he would relax and let some of the rest of his team have a go, but he was still intensely focussed, ignoring any chat with the fielders, trying to farm the strike and swearing to himself at the slightest mishit. He eventually finished with 167 not out from a total of 249-7, a huge score on a difficult wicket.
For the first three overs of the innings, with the opening bowlers mixing long hops with full tosses New Ash Green were in the game. Once they started to bowl a reasonable line and length, though, there was never any chance they would get the runs. The bowling was pretty ordinary, and there were still some loose balls, but with the slow wicket and variable bounce anyone of a lesser level than Lee was going to struggle to score quickly. Even Dan Lewsey eventually grew bored, ending an opening stand of 76 when he swung wildly and was stumped for 11. Karl Bartlett carried on from his morning success in the colts game with a good 26 in a season leading second wicket stand of 67, but the game was already drifting with no real incentive for either side to try much. The total was beyond New Ash Green's reach, and as it was a limited overs game St. Mary Cray didn't need to take wickets. Had the target been around 200 then New Ash Green might have had some incentive to take risks, and St. Mary Cray's captain and best bowler (Orpington 1st XI) may have bowled himself. As it was it turned into a net for various bowlers (including Lee with leg spin) and the batsmen, particularly Matthew Quantrill who was able to cruise to a comfortable 107* and add another season leading partnership of 21 for the sixth wicket with Simon Freeman.
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