Teston 230 all out (38 overs)
New Ash Green 150-4 (40 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 80 runs

The weather held good for one final fling, and the subsequent three very damp days proved it really was the right time to end the season. As with the final league games the final friendly game was in many ways a good reflection of the season as a whole. Opposition again wanting to play limited overs cricket led to a sterile match, but New Ash Green had a promising start, with an early wicket for John Harley (his 99th of the season counting other teams he has played for) and Ryan Marsh starting with 2 maidens, so the score was 3-1 after 4 overs. However as ever the bowling couldn't maintain that early consistency, and as Teston recovered Steve Coley began to hit the ball hard. Initially his timing wasn't great, and there might have been chances, but they didn't quite find the fielders. He was, though, quite clearly stumped when in the 40s, standing with his foot raised above the line and remaining there for several seconds after the appeal, yet like so many stumpings this year it wasn't given, leading to some ongoing angry words between batsman and keeper, particularly as Coley found his timing and started hitting the ball clean over boundary fielders and boundaries on his way to 105 before being given out LBW by Joe Elisak, and departing with much shaking of his head. The rest of the batting was less effective, but a reasonable scoring rate was maintained and another score over 200 was always on the cards. New Ash Green did continue to chip away at the wickets, though, and with John Harley bring himself back on at the end in a desperate attempt to get his 100th wicket of the season there was a little added spice. It looked as if he might have achieved his goal when Wilson hit one in the air towards the usually safe hands of Matthew Quantrill on the boundary, but the ball swung away from him, and he failed to get under it and spilled the catch on the run and slide. It was only a temporary delay, though, as shortly afterwards Wilson drilled the ball straight at Dan Lewsey, who had a choice of catching it or losing half his teeth, and sensibly chose the former. John Howland came on and mopped up the tail to repeat his 2008 trick of qualifying for the bowling averages with the final wicket of the season, though this time he couldn't quite sneak to the top of the averages.

Again chasing a score that was always likely to be beyond them New Ash Green never looked like making the necessary runs. A green wicket helped the opening bowlers to keep things tight, and although Matthew Quantrill and Dan Lewsey looked to be positive and made a steady start they couldn't break the shackles sufficiently to make a game of it. Quantrill fell to a stunning catch by Wilson when he middled a full toss towards the square leg boundary and saw it plucked out of the air. Karl Bartlett hit a big six but then got carried away and was caught, and Tim Cooper once again made double figures. Joe Elisak made the final contribution to the Duck Cup stats for the year before Marin Ives and Lewsey finished the game with a breezy 67 run partnership for the fifth wicket, a fitting reflection of the increased hope for batting improvements for the future shown at the end of the season, Lewsey finishing on 57* for his 4th fifty in as many weeks at the end of the season.

Scorecard

One final item - long delayed for many reasons, and may take a little while to load, but here is a pictorial reminder of one of the season's low points....