Mid-Kent League Match - 46 Overs per side, Maximum 12 per bowler

Offham (20 pts) 279-4
New Ash Green (6 pts) 229 all out
Offham won by 50 runs.

NAG's weakened bowling attack was left down to the bare bones after Andy Stuart tore a hamstring running in to start his third over. With Andy Cox struggling with his line and length and the other end, it looked like it could be a long day in the field for NAG against a powerful Offham top order.

Cox eventually made the break through to leave Offham 50-1, but that didn't slow the run rate down as over 130 was put on for the second wicket, before Andy Mayers held on to a catch on the long-off boundary off the bowling of Hobbs. This brought Neil Scott to the crease, and he hit Hobbs out the ground for 6 off his very first ball to spell out his intentions. Scott went on to hit an unbeaten 60 including 24 from one Vic Mayers over as the hosts amassed a score of 279 for just 4 wickets.

NAG got off to the worst possible start with Andy Mayers being bowled for 0 and Steve Hurst and Andy Payne both departing in the teens. It was left to Mark Klus to carry the fight but despite two huge 6's, Klus was bowled by Taylor. It was Simon Duke and Vic Mayers who put together NAG's first real partnership, Duke reaching a quick fire 30 before departing. Mayers continued to score freely and stylishly as Cox, Burke and then Shambrook came to join him. Mayers brought his fifty up with a pulled 6 and then Shambrook added comic value to the innings by edging his first four balls between wicket keeper and slip for 4 successive boundary's!

New Ash Green II v Macknade II
Saturday 4th August 2001

Mid-Kent League Match - 46 Overs per side, Maximum 12 per bowler

New Ash Green (20 pts) 228-7
Macknade (3 pts) 79 all out
New Ash Green Won by 149 runs.

The First XI seem to have blown it, but the Second XI remain on course to make it a league winning double with the colts. New Ash Green won the toss, and despite concerns about the weather chose to bat. The pitch was somewhat under-prepared with both groundsmen having been on tour the previous week, and with some heavy rain in the previous days. It was therefore an odd mixture of a hard, worn surface with some very green patches. As a result although there was no drastic problem the bounce was never entirely reliable and scoring was not easy. New Ash Green openers Matthew Quantrill and Rob Jansen proved this by getting off to a slow start then both getting out cheaply when they should have been accelerating; and Andy Harrington and Dominic Adolphe also had to be cautious for a while.

At the halfway point in the innings New Ash Green had reached just 62-2, but Adolphe and Harrington began to pick up the pace a bit, putting on 107 for the 3rd wicket before Harrington went for 52. Adolphe soon followed him, comprehensively stumped for 54, but with a long batting line up to build on this solid base New Ash Green were able to add a further 87 runs in the last 10 overs to post a very respectable 228-7.

Against some firey bowling from Mick Sumner and some subtle and not-so-subtle variations from Andy Harrington Macknade also struggled to score runs freely. Two brief breaks for showers didn't help their cause, but at 58-3 after 20 overs the game still looked fairly evenly poised. Matthew Quantrill then took a fine one handed slip catch above his head off Sumner to remove Austin and Macknade seemed to lose any interest in pursuing victory. The only apparent explanation for their tactics was that they were hoping to stay in long enough for the rain to save them, but as the worst clouds missed the ground it was a forlorn hope.

Sumner and Harrington bowled through their overs for 2-27 and 3-25 respectively, but they looked positively expensive compared to the change bowlers as Macknade retreated completely into their shells. Matthew Scanlan and Dave Harrington conceded just one run each in their first three overs, Scanlan finishing with 0-8 in five overs. With only the weather capable of depriving New Ash Green of victory Matthew Quantrill brought himself on to bowl off a couple of steps and get through the overs as quickly as possible, and even he only went for 3 runs in 4 overs. Meanwhile at the other end Dave Harrington was taking 4-6 in 9.3 overs, 6 of them maidens! In the last 23.3 overs Macknade added just 21 runs before their number 3 Harris was last out for 30, which had taken him an astonishing 115 balls to compile.

New Ash Green III
Saturday 4th August 2001

With most of the organisers away on tour during the week there was no opportunity to arrange a 3rd XI game, but there should be three games next week.

Nazeing Common v New Ash Green
Sunday 5th August

Friendly Match

Nazeing Common 240-4
New Ash Green 215-7

Match Drawn.

After setting out on a one day tour up north New Ash Green put up a more than respectable performance to draw with Nazeing Common and if they had received the same number of overs when batting second victory would have been in the bag.

After arriving at the ground and being told that the wicket was slow and low it was a suprise when Nazeing won the toss and elected to bat. The opening partnership piled on the runs on what turned out to be a batting paradise.

All of NAG's bowling took a hammering on a pitch which had a boundary one side which was smaller than Meopham and Offham. Matthew Scanlan picked up two wickets while Bawdekar & Keiron "Warney" Hoddinott got one each. NAG bowled 50 overs so 240 was not that bad a total to concede.

Batting second NAG started well with Rob Newmarch (59) & Duncan Shannon (56) (Editor's note - congratulations to Duncan on what I believe is his maiden 50 at any level, and level and certainly in senior cricket!) making 124 for the first wicket despite Newmarch needing Phillips (surely there must have been a better runner available?!?) to do his running for a number of overs. Both openers fell in consecutive overs, which gave secret weapon Charles Duguid his chance at the crease. He smashed the bowling to all parts of the ground before he too required a runner in the form of Duncan Shannon. Duguid carried on picking the ball off middle stump and finding the boundary before he fell for 32 possiblely the most entertaining knock of the season. Mike Wederell chipped in with 16.

NAG faced 45 overs when they batted, Phillips & Geoff Shannon were both left not out at the end of the game. With wickets in hand NAG would have been able to knock off the required 25 runs if they hand received the extra five overs. (But they did lose more wickets....)

This unplanned one game tour proved a problem as NAG picked up a number of injuries Newmarch (groin), Shannon (hamstring), Duguid (Leg), Phillips (Calf), Hoddinott (Hang over) & Bawdekar (Old age) all had a bearing on the result of this game.