Saturday 1st, Sunday 2nd & Monday 3rd May
Saturday 1st, Sunday 2nd & Monday 3rd May
Friendly Match - "Proper Cricket"
Northfleet 145-6 dec. (43 overs)
New Ash Green 149-3 (32.1 overs)
New Ash Green won by 7 wickets
Despite the mysterious absence of James Turner and the egg sandwiches New Ash Green had a strong batting line up, but being a little thinner on bowling skipper Dan Lewsey decided to ignore Northfleet's claims of weakness and boww first, backing his batting to chase a target. An inventive opening attack of John Harley and Edward Quantrill was highly economical, though the Quantrills were deprived of a first father-son dismissal by the square leg umpire when David Cook wondered down the track and missed in the 2nd over. Despite one or two more scares Cook batted through till tea unbeaten, but failed to lift his scoring rate and ended up unbeaten on 33. At the other end Tim Hayes was hardly any quicker, and when Quantrill was removed from the attack only 10 runs had been scored in the first ten overs, only 2 from his bowling. The advent of Dan Lewsey and Ryan McKivett, having his first ever bowl in a match, didn't see much improvement in the scoring rate and this perhaps led to a desperate attempt to take a second run which was thwarted by Joe Elisak's arm. Dan Lewsey accounted for the next three wickets, one slightly controversially when his opposite number Steve Potter hit the ball straight to Shane Hampsheir, who had just been placed at deep mid-wicket for the shot. Lewsey's comment that “he's only got one shot” was slightly louder than it should have been, but Potter wasn't in a very strong position to argue, having fallen straight into the trap. Joe Elisak kept things tight, but wanting a reasonable score to chase Lewsey gave a few others a go and Painter took advantage and accelerated the scoring rate a bit before being superbly caught on the boundary for 46, Dan Lewsey's casual looking one handed pluck from the air being an early contender for champagne moment. There was time for the openers to return and John Harley to pick up a wicket and a brief cameo innings from Ryan Marsh on his return to Manor Field before tea and the declaration at 145-6 after 43 overs.
Bradley Lonergan and Shane Hampsheir opened the New Ash Green reply, and looked sound enough initially, but both soon fell to the accurate bowling of Neil Morris, who bowled through form the pavilion end, rarely giving much away and posing a constant danger with the occasional lifting ball. Matthew Quantrill at 3 and Karl Bartlett at 4 are both in form this season and they steadied the ship and kept the score ticking over. They brought it down to less than 100 off the 20 overs, before the key moment of the match when Ryan Marsh came on to bowl. He started tidily, bowling a couple of good deliveries, but in his third over lost his line and length and was taken for 15 in 4 balls by Quantrill and removed from the attack. After that both Quantrill and Bartlett scored freely from the far end, and even Morris couldn't keep things completely tight. The pair reached a hundred partnership before Bartlett top edged an attempted pull to give Morris his third wicket, falling ten short of a maiden (adult) 50. By this time the run rate was down to around 3 an over needed, and Matt Clark wasted no time, keeping the runs flowing, if occasionally a little fortuitously in his first innings of the season. In a last desperate throw of the dice Northfleet skipper Potter took off the keeper's pads and bowled an over of spin himself, but went for 11 runs to leave the scores level, and Quantrill finished things off with something close to a Dil-Scoop from Morris, ending on 80*.
Cancelled
Very very wet.
Friendly Match - 40 overs
New Ash Green 147-8 (40 overs)
Wilmington 148-9 (40 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 1 wicket
Catches win matches, but first you have to hold them and get them given out. More of that later, but to begin at the beginning it was the usual under-prepared Wilmington wicket that greeted Joe Elisak on a foray into captaincy, but with a strong batting line up he still decided to bat first on winning the toss. This left John Harley short of his usual early game exercise and having to resort to jogging round the boundary, while Andy Harrington and Elisak opened the batting in the absence of the planned opening pair of Dan Lewsey and Andy Mayers who arrived just as the game was getting under way. Some initially friendly opening bowling was treated with respect by two batsmen without much batting behind them this season, but Harrington was soon undone by one that shot through and pinned him LBW. Elisak and Lewsey didn’t last a huge amount longer, but Andy Mayers looked in good touch powering several shots away before falling. Martin Ives took advantage of some of the many full tosses that Wilmington bowled, and Scott McKechnie inevitably made the biggest score, including several towering straight sixes before eventually being bowled. John Harding provided McKechnie with solid support for a while, and there was still more batting to come with Matt Clark at number 8. Josh Harrington followed hot on the heels of Edward Quantrill in joining the “third generation” club, and managed to outscore Clark in the 8th wicket partnership, before getting out in the final over, when Clark was joined by John Harley for the last 4 balls of the innings, leaving Matthew Quantrill not needed at number 11.
147 looked like a huge total in the conditions, and with only extras contributing any runs in the first 6 overs Wilmington didn’t look to have the firepower to make the runs. John Harley bowled through his 8 overs for just 7 runs, while Matt Clark was only marginally more expensive before giving way to Matthew Quantrill who took a wicket in his first over and could have had a second before conceding a run. Josh Harrington replaced Harley and his first ball was top edged to fine leg to give him a wicket on his maiden ball in men’s cricket. It was all looking rosy at this point, but Wilmington’s middle order turned out to be their strength, and some big hitting began to make some inroads into the run rate. Dan Lewsey came on and checked the flow of runs at one end, as well as picking up vital wickets, and some smart work from John Harding taking a stumping off Scott McKechnie picked up another, but the rate remained within sight. When Andy Harrington gained revenge for the shooter that had removed him by doing the same to Tim Cotton, the bowler responsible, it looked as if New Ash Green had got through the main batsmen. Quantrill returned to bowl the final two overs from the pavilion end and turned one to take the edge and leave Wilmington 9 wickets down with twenty needed from the final two overs. It all seemed over in the penultimate over when Harrington seemed to find the edge of the bat, so obviously that John Harding didn’t bother with the easy stumping, but mysteriously the umpire failed to raise his finger. New Ash Green weren’t too worried, as the batsmen didn’t look capable of making the runs, and indeed only four were scored, leaving Quantrill (for the second time this season) to bowl the final over with 16 needed. It looked as if the result would be similar when the first ball was looped up gently to mid off where Matt Clark was under it, but mysteriously he grassed the simplest of catches and the batsmen took one, whereupon the number 11 decided to chance his arm and suddenly managed to connect, picking up 2, 6 and 4 off the next three balls. A scrambled two left one needed from the last ball and brought all the fielders in to save the single, but despite mistiming the ball for the first time in the over the batsman got it far enough from the fielder to make the run and give Wilmington a dramatic victory.