Weekend of 12/05/2007 to 13/05/2007

At the end of last season, Linden Park beat Ashford in a rain-affected game at Ball Lane to dent the Ants' chances of promotion - so it was a side keen to avenge that defeat that travelled to Tunbridge Wells on Saturday. On arrival, the Park boys were frantically trying to get a rain-sodden pitch ready for play and when the two skippers tossed up, Linden's skipper had no hesitation in asking Ashford to bat first on the damp surface.

Ashford's openers Liam Tegg and Julian Day continued their early season form to put the bowlers apparent advantage to the sword. Day was particularly severe on Linden Park's strike bowler, West Indian Kenny George, who was withdrawn from the attack after going for 29 off his first 4 overs and Tegg also punished anything wayward. The score was on 68 in the 10th over when Day (40) pulled a short ball to midwicket, but Tegg and Stuart Paine continued the good start with Tegg reaching his half century before giving Harvey the first of his 3 victims with a caught and bowled. Shannon Fattore went soon after but Gary Sutton and Paine slowly started to dominate the Park attack. Paine went for a patient 30 bringing Simon Taylor (18) to the crease and Sutton then started to get his eye in, punishing anything short. He and Taylor, running well between the wickets started to accrue runs at a healthy rate and when Sutton fell for a fine 69, the Ants were on their way to amassing a formidable 263 for 7 off of the allotted 50 overs, which was a great effort given the conditions. Harvey finished with 3 for 73 off his 15 overs.

Linden Park needed a solid start if they were to chase this total but Nad Campbell cleaned bowled the opener in his first over to put them on the back foot. Keeping the ball in right areas, Campbell and Alex Watson soon made further inroads into the Linden line up with Watson picking up 3 wickets for 33 runs in a great 11-over spell. Young Mohsin Raza replaced Campbell and his 4 accurate overs only went for 3 runs to further hamper the home side's chances. When Taylor and Paine both picked up wickets early in their spells, Linden were in disarray at 44 for 7 off 17 overs. Former Linden skipper John Harvey curbed his usual attacking style and decided to shut up shop with over 30 overs remaining. Patience was now the order of the day for the Ashford side and Day rotated his many bowling options bringing his 3 spinners into play. With off spinners Ali Neale and Tegg plying their trade at one end, former St Lawrence and Cambridgeshire leg spinner Craig Buckham led from the front at the other with 8 excellent overs, turning the ball sharply. When he slid a top spinner through the batsman's defence to secure an LBW, Watson and Campbell were immediately brought back into the attack to try and push for the win. Watson was unlucky in his first over back but Nad Campbell had no such problems. He produced a beauty to clean bowl Kenny George for 0 and with 4 overs remaining he had Lindens number 11 well caught by Buckham at silly mid off to secure the deserved win by 141 runs and take the 20 points. Campbell finished with the superb figures of 4 for 11 off 8 overs whilst Harvey remained unbeaten on 44. A great performance with the bat followed up by superb bowling and excellent fielding auger well for the rest of the season.

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Ashford 263-7 (50 overs) (G.Sutton 69, L.Tegg 53, J.Day 40)

Linden Park 122 all out (46 overs) (N.Campbell 4-11, A.Watson 3-33, C.Buckham 1-11)

Won by 141 runs

Ashford welcomed back skipper Darran Wood and Ben Ealham into the side and after winning the toss chose to field first on a blustery afternoon at Ball Lane. Ealham and Colin Payne both bowled tightly and runs were hard to come by for the Colfeians openers but the Ashford bowlers were unable to grab an early wicket. Chris Senior was introduced into the attack and eventually secured the vital breakthrough getting rid of both openers in successive overs to leave the visitors 76-2. A few trusty blows then took the score to 125 before Ealham deservedly had some success in his second spell dismissing Kellehar for 21. Fifteen year old Matt Nash then bowled an excellent spell into the wind conceding only four runs in five overs, but the real turning point was the introduction of leg spinner Dean Clark into the attack. The "Ginger Magician" bamboozled the opposition clean bowling the dangerous looking Stapleton on the second bounce and then removed the tail to finish with fantastic figures of 4 for 11. Ealham also picked up a couple more wickets and Colfeians were bowled out for 144.

Skipper Darran Wood went off like a train with the score racing to 19 after only two overs before he was caught at mid-on, and with last week's hero Assan Raza LBW for 0 Ashford were in a spot of bother at 20-2. However the experienced Neil Tegg and 18 year old Australian James Anthony then restored some calm to the proceedings and the score moved on to 73 before Tegg unluckily played on for 31. Tony Rolfe then joined Anthony and these two gradually picked up the pace with Anthony starting to get in his stride with some excellent attacking shots against the spinner. In a fitting end to the game Anthony hit a boundary to reach his maiden league fifty and win the game for Ashford. Rolfe played an excellent supporting role and ended up 27 not out.

This win puts Ashford joint top ahead of their visit to Bromley Common this Saturday.

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Old Colfeians 144 all out (47.3 overs) (B.Ealham 3-35, C.Senior 2-49, D.Clarke 4-11)

Ashford 148-3 (31.5 overs) (N.Tegg 31, J.Anthony 51*, A.Rolfe 27*)

Won by 7 wkts

Match report not available.

Match report not available.

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