Saturday 16th June & Sunday 17th June
Sherwood v New Ash Green
Mid-Kent League Match - 30 Overs per side, Maximum 8 per bowler
New Ash Green (7 pts) 108 all out
Sherwood (20 pts) 109-5
Sherwood Won by 5 wickets.
The weather again hindered New Ash Green, as Sherwood's ground missed enough of the morning rain to make it possible to play a 30 over game starting at about 3 p.m., but on a wicket which was under-prepared and damp.
Sherwood won the crucial toss and inviting the visitors to bat on a juicy wicket, and another poor batting display cost NAG dear and left promotion hopes hanging by a thread after a second successive defeat.Steve Hurst promoted to open the shortened innings got things off to a flyer scoring 7 off the first two balls to give the ever nervy NAG dressing room cause to remove their hands from their eyes, which is the now the familiar pose when we are batting!
Despite racing to 36 from 5 overs, the dismissal of Steve Hurst to a leg stump yorker brought an all too familiar collapse, which wasn’t helped by an injury forcing Andy Cox to retire, with Andy Mayers being bowled for 1, Matt Meehan finally being caught for 5 and Vaughan John registering the first of three ducks, it was left to Simon Duke and Mark Klus to restore some respectability to the scoreboard.
Duke held things together with a well constructed 27, while Klus showed all his potential with a classy 16, before NAG were bowled out for 108, with Cox having returned with a runner being last man out for 20.
Sherwood got off to a great start punishing Meehan in particular to race towards the NAG total. Andy Stuart came on first change and gave the visitors some hope with two wickets, though Cox, replacing the economical Ian Shambrook, was unable to come to terms with his toe injury and proved expensive before the introduction of James Hewitt brought Sherwood back in to check.
Sherwood’s win was never in doubt after the early overs and it became a case of how many points NAG could muster and with Meehan returning to bowl a superb closing spell picking up a further two wickets and Hewitt grabbing a deserved scalp himself NAG rallied to collect 7 bonus points and with most other games cancelled, hopefully not to much damage was done.
Ditton II v New Ash Green II
Saturday 16th June 2001
Mid-Kent League Match - 46 Overs per side, Maximum 12 per bowler
Cancelled - Rain.
10 points per side.
With the forecast showers having held off on Friday there was reason for optimism for Saturday, but several bursts of heavy rain on Saturday morning put paid to that and Ditton called the match off at around 11 a.m. With New Ash Green close to full strength for the first time and Ditton firmly placed at the bottom of the table a likely 20 points sadly go to waste.
New Ash Green III
Saturday 16th June 2001
No Match.
For the second week running New Ash Green were able to raise a 3rd XI on Saturday, but despite a couple of near misses were unable to pick up a bureau fixture. In the end the weather would have ruined any match that was obtained, but hopefully games will be found and the 3rd XI will become a regular Saturday fixture.
Newington v New Ash Green
Sunday 17th June 2001
Friendly Match
New Ash Green 142 all out.
Newington 144-4
Newington Won by 6 wickets.
Despite the heavy rain over the weekend and the game being played at Frindsbury's ground, which is not known as Frog Island for nothing, this match was able to start on time, but on a very damp wicket. Both sides had troubles with players dropping out, and Matthew Quantrill, playing as no one else was available after two injury drop outs, actually left the match for the middle three hours to have a Father's Day family meal! Nonetheless, New Ash Green's ten and a half players were more than Newington's ten.
New Ash Green chose to bat first, having won the toss before all their side had arrived at the ground, and Quantrill was soon back in the pavilion and getting changed for his meal having tried to play aggressively in conditions not suited to attack. Christian Hoddinott soon followed, to a magnificent catch, but after that Dominic Adolphe (36) and Andy Payne (35) looked very much in control as they put on 67 for the third wicket. Just as a big score was looming Adolphe suffered a severe lapse of judgement over his running and was run out, whereupon the wickets tumbled regularly, and New Ash Green stumbled to 142 all out.
New Ash Green were short of bowling in reply, and although a number of bowlers were given a trundle only the opening pair of Matthew Scanlan (1-43) and Sharad Bawdekar (3-33) had any success. They each took an early wicket, but not before Mozz Khan had scored a rapid 40, and after that Newington's no.4 Tilstone played a commanding innings, ending up with 61 not out. There was a brief flurry of excitement as Knight, who had taken a long while over his 16 runs, sacrificed himself on Bawdekar's return, and Austin was bowled first ball, but once the hat-trick had been avoided Newington progressed to a very comfortable 6 wicket win.