Friendly Match

Northfleet 142 all out
New Ash Green 120 all out
Northfleet won by 22 runs.

NAG arrived at Northfleet with one of the youngest sides it has fielded this season, full of hope having enjoyed a successful run in this fixture in the past few years.

Having won the toss and chosen to bat the Northfleet openers made a steady start against the accurate bowling of Wills and Cottrell. The first wicket pair took the score into the 30's before they took a 3rd to the arm of Sumner. His return was collected by Stuart at the bowlers end who with a direct hit at the keepers end, brought the fall of the first wicket.

However, this just served to increase the run rate with the Northfleet number 3 particularly harsh on James Oliver taking the score to 67-1. This brought the introduction of Paul Sumner who joined the impressive
Ollie Harding in the attack and immediately went to work ripping through the middle order taking 4 relatively quick wickets. With Harding finding huge amounts of turn both ways and regularly beating both the batsman and Pete Burke behind the stumps while taking two wickets, the hosts slumped to 90-8.

It was Graham Poole's turn next to show off the strength of the NAG colts section bowling a very tidy 4 over spell and picking up a debut wicket into the bargain. With the 9th wicket down Sumner was recalled from the bottom end to try and wrap up the innings and take his 5th wicket. However Northfleet had left their best two batsmen at 10 & 11 and they added 35 for the last wicket before a leaping Alan Cottrell at cover took an unbelievable catch high above his head to complete Sumner's 5 wicket haul and dismiss the hosts for 142.

There was little sign of the trouble they lay ahead as Cox and Duguid laid into the opening bowlers. Duguid played a trademark innings before holing out at cover for a whirlwind 12. This brought Stuart and Cox together who realistically had to do most of the work on a now rapidly deteriorating wicket if NAG were to have a good chance of victory. With
Cox continuing to play some powerful shots and Stuart just starting to get going, Northfleet soon introduced their 2 quick bowlers. Facing bowling significantly quicker than anything else on display, Cox was bowled by one that stayed very low for a quick fire 28 and 3 overs later Stuart was bowled by one that seemed to stop.

Oliver, Burke and Wilson didn't last long although Oliver did smash the fast bowler who had slowed down to spin back over his head, to prompt him to go back of his full run from the very next ball! Graham Poole stuck around gamely, while Wills soon departed after a rash shot, Harding was the next to go bringing man of the moment Paul Sumner to the
crease.

After a few lusty Sumner blows, panic started to spread amongst the Northfleet side and the serious bowlers were quickly re-instated, with Poole finally out. Number 11 Cottrell strode out for what he claimed could be his last ever innings. Alan provided solid defence, while Sumner continued to smear the ball through cow-corner and mid-wicket. With the victory target down to just 20 in 11 overs, Sumner got a ball that barely got off the floor to bowl him for 27. An enjoyable game, which ended in defeat and perhaps in fairness the NAG Captain will rue his decision not to bowl himself or Cox on what he thought was an unsuitable surface and opposition for the quicker bowlers. However a great day out was had by all and the game played in a brilliant spirit.