Saturday 7th August & Sunday 8th August
Saturday 7th August & Sunday 8th August
Kent Regional Cricket League - 46 Overs per side
Crockenhill (20pts) 244-4 dec. (41.2 overs)
New Ash Green (2 pts) 87 all out (27 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 157 runs
Winning the toss New Ash Green followed their most successful formula of inserting the opposition, but unfortunately they ran into batsmen for whom it all went right. Michael Field was impressive in making 83, and the rest all made contributions. Paul Sumner was the most successful bowler with two wickets, and Andy Harrington and Keith Bushell got one each, but in the end it was the rain that stemmed the flow of runs.
With time passing Crockenhill chose to declare to give themselves a chance of winning before the rain returned or darkness fell, and the New Ash Green batting conspired in this by being over aggressive against the deceptively easy looking bowling. Andy Mayers was top scorer with 31 and Karl Bartlett accompanied him in easily the best stand of the innings, but the rest fell all too quickly until a last wicket stand enabled Keith Bushell to become the third man to reach double figures. According to Crockenhill's match report there was some brilliant catching involved in some of the dismissals, particularly that that removed Paul Sumner, but however it happened the result was another disappointingly low total.
Scorecard
Current League Table
Kent Regional Cricket League - 46 Overs per side
New Ash Green conceded
Barely enough for one eleven yet again.
Current League TableFriendly Match - 40 overs
St. Mary Cray 192-6 dec. (40 overs)
New Ash Green 78 all out (37.2 overs)
New Ash Green lost by 114 runs
In a strange déjà vu sort of way New Ash Green returned on Sunday to the same ground they had played at on Saturday. The opposition were different, and indeed only Karl Bartlett played in both New Ash Green sides, but there was a similar look to the scorecard as well. St. Mary Cray's opener made 99 before being removed by a father-son combination, stumped by Dave Harley off Ryan, and others offered good support. There were two late wickets for John Harley, and wickets for Mark Chapelhow and Karl Bartlett, as well as a good spell by Martin Bartlett in his first game of the season. There were also two good catches, a diving catch by Mark Chapelhow and (perhaps more surprisingly) what is described as a great running catch by Phil Markham to give Karl Barlett his wicket.
Chasing 193 New Ash Green were never in the hunt. They lost Dan Lewsey early to a perhaps unfortunate LBW decision, and in the top order only Karl Bartlett, with 15, and Dave Harley, with 10, reached double figures. There was some additional resistance down the order, with Phil Markham (having a day to remember) making 13 including (allegedly) a superb cover drive, and John Harley top scoring with 19, but although they managed to stretch the innings out almost to the 40 overs they failed to beat the Saturday team's score with yet another total below 100.