New Ash Green (7 points) 126 all out (43.5 overs)
Deal Victoria (20 points) 127-5 (30.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 5 wickets

A depleted New Ash Green side put up a reasonable performance against strong opposition in their first league game of the season. Having been put into bat they got off to a steady start with Matt Scanlan and Ian Martin both making 23, but steady seems to have been about as good as it got. Andy Mayers made 22 and Vic Mayers and Vaughan John both made double figures, but the run rate never really rose and they ended up being all out shortly before running out of overs.

Vic Mayers put in an impressive spell opening the bowling, but Deal’s two biggest batting stars Austen Marsh and Sam Killip made solid scores to set up the win. There were wickets for both Mayers, Dan Lewsey and John Harley, but Deal got home reasonably comfortably with nearly 20 overs to spare. However against a strong side close to full strength New Ash Green were by no means embarrassed and will be looking to improve their results when they are themselves at full strength.

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Deal Victoria (20 points) 266-1 dec. (38 overs)
New Ash Green (9 points) 210 all out (45 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 56 runs

203 more needed to win, the last pair at the crease….surely impossible? Maybe, but for a while there were a number of very worried Deal cricketers who thought they could be on the wrong end of that miracle. It had been a long drive down to the coast for a weakened New Ash Green team featuring three under 15s making their league debut and a few others who could hardly be called league regulars. Facing a newly promoted side, and discovering they had achieved promotion using largely their third team and were now playing a genuine second team in this league didn’t do anything to instil confidence, and losing the toss on a sunny day and with a flat looking wicket didn’t help either. Although Ruby Shah and Kieran Poole both bowled tidy opening spells there was never much in the pitch for the bowlers, and the beautifully smooth outfield meant that the ball raced to the boundaries with the lightest of touches from the batsmen. Deal’s openers Frank Packman and Matthew Carley took full advantage of the conditions, though Poole was unlucky not to have Carley picked up at slip. Once the batsmen were in there was little the bowlers could do. Adam Reeves produced another steady spell, but Keith Bushell in his first bowl of the season was a little rusty to start. Steve Ball tried his first bowl for two years, and after a promising first ball lost control completely, a couple of wides followed by four successive head high full tosses, all called no ball and all put away for 4. He managed to get some control back before finishing the over, conceding a possible club record 35 runs. The next gamble was to try David Baker, and in his first over he produced the goods, with another full toss which Carley mishit into the air to be well caught by Martin Fry. The relief was short lived for New Ash Green as the new batsman, Nick Francis, took a few balls to get his eye in and then started launching huge hits at everything, including a six that sailed over the high netting on the straight boundary and out of the ground to be lost forever. Packman, meanwhile, continued to accumulate steadily and push the bad balls for 4, and eventually reached his hundred in the 38th over, prompting an immediate declaration, with the intention of giving more time to pick up maximum bowling points. It had been a long hard slog in the field for New Ash Green, but it was a valiant fielding display, with plenty of effort being made right to the end.

Although 266 might have looked safe having seen New Ash Green’s bowling it was less than five runs an over when the extra overs were added to New Ash Green’s total, and the pitch was still a very good one for batting on. Unfortunately New Ash Green mostly declined to take advantage of that, a succession of batsmen finding ways to give their wickets away, by edging the ball or missing straight ones. At 22-6 it looked likely to be a humiliating defeat, with the home side laughing and joking in the field and giving their occasional bowlers a go. However Steve Ball and Kieran Poole gave Matthew Quantrill some support, and the score was lifted to a more respectable 64 before Poole and Adam Reeves fell in quick succession just as the fielding captain had decided to turn to his serious bowlers again to try and finish matters off. As it turned out, though, those bowlers weren’t going to have things all their own way this time round. Keith Bushell played sensibly, keeping out the straight balls and hitting those off target, and Quantrill was continuing in his astonishing current run of form, playing calmly and taking each ball on its merits. With it not needing much more than a push to get the ball past the fielders for 4 the last wicket pair were able to keep up with the necessary scoring rate and see off the opening bowler, Cunningham, who finished with 5-41, and pretty much everything else that was thrown at them. Quantrill hadn’t reached 50 when Bushell joined him, but after 10 overs or so together he had notched up his second successive century. Although more than 100 were still needed Deal were beginning to worry, and when Bushell was very badly dropped there were some real signs of concern. The batsmen continued merrily on their way, and having passed the landmarks of the previous club 10th wicket record partnership, set only last year, and the hundred partnership they were now into the realms of scoring bonus points, something which had seemed a distant dream an hour or so earlier. Quantrill passed 150 and the next targets were the club record individual score of 163, Bushell’s fifty and then the double century partnership and victory, but at this point the dream ended with an inside edge onto Bushell’s stumps, ending his innings on 37 and the partnership on 146. It was a sign of how comfortably the pair had batted that the dominant expression by the fielding side was of relief rather than jubilation, and their skipper swore he would never again declare in a league game. Quantrill finished 151*, his third successive unbeaten innings giving him a season’s batting average to date of 214, having scored 338 runs since he was last out, but it was unfortunate that a few more New Ash Green batsmen hadn’t joined him in taking advantage of the superb high scoring conditions and perhaps pushing for an astounding victory.

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Pinewoods 107 all out (39.2 overs)
New Ash Green 108-7 (35.3 overs)
New Ash Green won by 3 wickets

Winning the toss and following the recently successful formula of opting to chase, much to the disgust of some on another hot day, John Harley was soon amongst the wickets via an LBW and a one handed diving slip catch. Thereafter he and Ruby Shah kept the batsmen tied down but were unable to make a further breakthrough, and after thirteen overs a double change brought Simon Freeman and Dan Lewsey into the attack. Lewsey soon struck, but although he and Freeman kept things tidy more runs were added for the 4th wicket before Dyson, who had looked very competent, stepped back to one that kept low and was unhappy to be given LBW although he was palpably plumb in front of middle stump. Lewsey and Freeman then worked their way through the lower order with Lewsey taking 5-21 and Freeman bowling probably the best spell of spin he has yet produced in his nascent career, as well as taking a good low catch to give Lewsey his 5th wicket. Harley and Shah returned but couldn’t break a stubborn tenth wicket partnership, and with the opening bat still there visions of the previous day were floating around a few heads. However Shah had to retire from bowling with a blister, but was immediately in the game giving Matt Clark his first senior wicket by stretching over his head to end Morris’s chances of carrying his bat with another good catch.

The target seemed within comfortable reach, but New Ash Green were struck an early blow when Martin Fry and Charlie Cutting were out in successive balls. However Matt Clark played another promising innings and added 36 with John Harding before being beaten by one that kept a little low. Matthew Quantrill’s spectacular run of form ended in low key fashion when he edged behind, but James Porter played a few impressive shots on the way to a career best score of 18. When he was eventually bowled with just 21 needed to win Phil Markham followed immediately, leaving Ruby Shah to face a hat trick ball for the second time in the weekend – and for the second time he survived. A few clean blows from him and solid accumulation from John Harding seemed to have steadied the ship, but Harding eventually fell for 42, not quite clearing the square leg fielder. However Dan Lewsey had spent the last weekend seeing out wins, and he carried on in the same vein this weekend, with the small variation that he hit the winning runs himself this time, completing a good three wicket win with several overs to spare. This was the fourth successive win in friendly games, already more than were won in the whole of 2007!

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