Old Williamsonians (20 pts) 205 all out (46overs)
New Ash Green (4 pts) 107 all out (41.4 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 98 runs

The usual mixture of a side against yet another side of fit youngsters at their peak in fitness and form. This one had a promising start again when Old Willies leading batsman, Luke Butcher, lofted the first ball straight to Arron Ward. Good opening spells from Andy Mayers and especially Vic Mayers kept the run rate in check, and Keith Bushell, taking over from Andy kept the pressure on. An initial recovery from the early wicket was halted by two wickets each for Bushell and Vic Mayers, one of Vic's being a magnificent piece of stumping by John Harding, standing up to Vic throughout on a difficult wicket. With the score on 75-5 New Ash Green were right in the game. Old Willies, though, had depth in both batting and bowling, and a stand of 89 for the 6th wicket put them in control, though the fielding and bowling maintained a high level throughout. Joe Elisak eventually made the breakthrough, and Matt Dehaney with two wickets, plus two more for Andy Mayers in a hostile second spell ensured that there was no late acceleration and the hosts were all out in the final over.

On a distinctly uneven wicket 205 looked a tough target, but New Ash Green got off to a solid start with Matthew Quantrill and John Harding putting on 30 for the first wicket. Oddly the opening bowlers seemed to get less variety out of the wicket than the change bowlers, but that wasn't a lot of help to New Ash Green when there were change bowlers by the bucket load, and they got variable bounce and movement from the pitch. A lifting one eventually did for Harding, but Quantrill was beaten by a superb catch in the gully rather than the pitch. David Baker struck some firm blows in getting the top score of 23, but the relentless barrage of brisk medium pace doing all sorts right through the innings worked through the rest of the batting. Andy Mayers and Matt Dehaney joined the top three in making double figures, and no one gave up the fight completely, but eventually the final wicket fell a few runs short of the first bonus batting point.

Scorecard
Current League Table

Sheppey (20 pts) 321-8 (46 overs)
New Ash Green (4 pts) 85 all out (33.2 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 236 runs

Although still not at their strongest New Ash Green were hoping to be competitive against Sheppey, and they might have been if Sheppey's first team game had not been cancelled, leading their first team opening bat and (apparently) captain to play himself in the seconds. He made 162, and with his opening partner making 50 the game was beyond New Ash Green well before the end of the first innings. Most of the bowlers were expensive, but Ian Davies got the initial breakthrough and had respectable figures of 1-42 in 8, while Dan Lewsey (3-50 in 11) and John Harley (4-76 in 12) returned to pick up wickets at the end. After the openers the rest of the batting order offered little resistance, but the damage was done by then.

The top order made a decent effort in reply. Michael James, on his league debut, made 17, John Clack 18 and James Turner, in his first game for several years, top scored with 24, but the tail subsided without much resistance to be all out for 85.

Scorecard
Current League Table

Nuxley 200-9 (42 overs)
New Ash Green 174-9 (39 overs)
Match Drawn

For the third year in a row the game against John Harley's former colleagues failed to go ahead, and the fixture bureau brought a blast from the past in Nuxley, a regular opponent of the late 80s and early 90s. It turned out to be a return to old times in more ways than one, with an old fashioned game of Sunday cricket being played in superb spirit, ending in a close finish and a good long evening in the pub, for those who weren't working! Whether by negotiation or a toss was not clear to the spectators, but Nuxley batted first on a pitch that was barely playable after heavy overnight rain. Despite copious amounts of sawdust on the footholds both opening bowlers fell over in their delivery stride at least once, and Dan Lewsey asked to be taken off after six overs. John Harley did make an early breakthrough, with a full toss being lofted gently to square leg, but the second wicket pair batted soundly, putting on 72 before a leading edge gave a deserving Adam Reeves his first wicket of the season. With another 55 being put on for the third wicket Nuxley were looking in control, but with the conditions favouring slow seam bowling Matt Bushe and (in his first spell of seam for two years) Matthew Quantrill stopped them accelerating too rapidly. Quantrill made the first breakthrough, the opener Hahn lofting up a very easy catch to mid off, where a delighted John Harley seemed even more surprised than his team mates when he held it. Another followed two balls later when Bushe dived forward to take an excellent catch in the gully. After that it was Bushe himself who took over, bowling through to the end and working his way through the batting line up despite one or two unhelpful contributions from his fielders. In the end Dan Lewsey made up for earlier lapses by holding a good catch to complete Bushe's first ever five wicket haul, but Nuxley's last wicket pair were able to reach 200 in the last over before tea.

In response Nuxley played the game superbly, offering a variety of bowling from the start and getting through their overs quickly enough that New Ash Green received 19 in the first hour. Unfortunately the openers, Matthew Quantrill and John Harding, were aware of the frailty of the batting line up, and had to resist some of the temptation thrown their way early on. Nonetheless they made a solid start before Harding was stumped when trying to up the scoring rate, ending a partnership of 43 for the first wicket. With Quantrill beginning to score more confidently Dan Lewsey played a solid supporting role as a further 43 were added for the second wicket before Lewsey was bowled. Jasper Holliday perished almost immediately, but James Porter signalled his intend by pulling his first ball through mid-wicket for 4 and carried on with awkward looking, but effective, blocks of straight balls and big swings at anything else. Quantrill was also looking to attack and when he had reached 75 and the total 129-3 the run chase was still looking doable. The mathematicians amongst our readers, if any, may have noticed that the partnership was on 43 at this point, and that seemed to be the day's unlucky number as Quantrill then edged a cut and was caught behind. Porter continued his lusty blows, passing his previous career best score of 19 to warm applause and moving on to 31 before he was finally pinned right in front of the stumps for 31. The rest of the batsmen didn't shut up shop, but making the runs was beyond them. There was time for Ryan Marsh to make a career best score of 15 not out, and for John Harley to put some pressure on Matt Bushe by getting out to the penultimate ball, but Bushe saw it off safely and the game ended in a far from dull draw.

Scorecard