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

New Ash Green (20 pts) 193 all out
Addington (10 pts) 152 all out
New Ash Green won by 41 runs.

Having been asked to bat New Ash Green were given a solid start by Andy Mayers (30) and Andy Payne (34), with Mayers starting faster but Payne catching him up before they were both out with the score on 67. Andy Cox and Vic Mayers also started their partnership slowly, but Mayers was just starting to pick up the pace when he pulled a muscle and had to retire hurt. After that New Ash Green's batting went downhill somewhat, but they continued to pick up a few runs throughout the order, aided by Vic Mayers quick 19 on his return with a runner, before they were all out for 193 with two overs remaining.

Already missing three prime bowlers before the match started and with Vic Mayers also unable to bowl New Ash Green elected to use the old ball to open the bowling with Ian Shambrook and the spin of Graham Hobbs, and when Addington were 1-1 after four overs it looked a good ploy. Addington recovered though, and were soon nearly up with the required rate, with wickets in hand. The change bowling of Andy Cox and Pete Burke with the new ball brought a wicket, but the runs kept coming and Gareth Bokes and Neil Robinson looked capable of getting the win. Trying a few different bowlers New Ash Green struck lucky when Matthew Quantrill picked up the wicket of Robinson during his one poor over, and with Hobbs coming back on to tie up Bokes and Shambrook also returning and bowling tidily the pressure on Addington increased. New Ash Green's fielding, well above the standard set by Addington, also kept the batsmen in check, and the wickets began to fall. Shambrook and Hobbs both finished with 2-30, and Cox came back to bowl a very good second spell and end up with 4-21 as Addington lost their last 5 wickets for 6 runs, collapsing from what had looked a potentially winning position to a comfortable defeat.

New Ash Green II v High Halstow II
Saturday 11th August 2001

Friendly Match - 40 overs

High Halstow 153 all out
New Ash Green 146-7
High Halstow won by 7 runs.

High Halstow batted first and set off at a rate against bowling that was generally too short. The first ball Matt Scanlan pitched up took the first wicket! At 70 for 1 after very few overs High Halstow looked set for a big score but then Sharad Bawdekar (7-1-21-4) and Tom Strong (7-0-21-4) got NAG back into the game. The unlikely entry "stumped Newmarch, bowled Bawdekar" made two appearances in the scorebook as High Halstow continued to play aggressively, so much so that they were all out for 153 after less than 31 overs. The other wicket taker was young Graham Poole.

NAG had a solid start before tea and almost made it to the interval with the opening partnership intact, the first wicket falling two balls before the break. Darren Phillips (41) was batting steadily at one end with everyone chipping in with a few. Matt Scanlan (36), batting at six, helped Darren take the score past 90 and the next wicket got the score past 100. Then Tom Strong and Paul Sumner played aggressive innings to get the asking rate down to 11 off 12 balls. Unfortunately Paul was out to the first ball of the penultimate over which left Matt Scanlan with too much to do and the innings closed with NAG eight runs short.

New Ash Green III
Saturday 11th August 2001

With a fixture arranged against Borden a lot of effort went into raising a 3rd XI this week, only to have the opposition call the game off at 9 p.m. the day before the game!

New Ash Green v Lamorbey Park
Sunday 12th August

Friendly Match - 40 overs

New Ash Green 255-7
Lamorbey Park 216 all out

New Ash Green won by 39 runs.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, NAG had to get over the early loss of John Howland for 1 but they were helped by Lamorbey Park's wicketkeeper who decided to stand up to the wicket off the opening bowlers and gave NAG a helping hand with 28 byes in the first ten overs.

Neil Howick smashed his way to 41 in his new position of opening the batting. Howick was accompanied by Duncan Shannon (20) in a partnership of 72 for the second wicket.

Phillips (17) & Mick Sumner (24) both scored at quicker than a run a ball to get the run rate up and with plenty of batting left it was looking good for a big score. John Harding & Andy Mayers came to the crease with 9 overs to go and piled on the runs, a partnership of 99 for the 8th wicket (a new club record!) helped push NAG up to 255. Harding 50* & Mayers 48* was more impressive due to Harding needing a runner after pulling a hamstring. The smashed tile and big hole on the club house roof is the work of Andy.

Chasing 256 to win Lamorby Park started off well with opener Hobbs taking to Paul Sumner. Hobbs was dropped by Duncan Shannon off Sumner's bowling before he was removed from the bowling attack. Mayers picked up his only wicket bowling opener Paapoo for 6.

Spinners Howick & Oliver Harding bowled well despite having to deal with the batsmen smashing them to all parts. Indifferent fielding did not help, Howick finished with 2 for 51 while Harding's figures showed 2 for 46.

Lamorbey Park looked like they were heading towards victory before Paul Sumner returned to the attack to claim Hobbs for 80 and then take four more wickets to end up with figures of 8-1-41-5.