Weekend of 25/08/2007 to 26/08/2007

Ashford travelled to Holmesdale knowing that a victory against the 3rd placed side would put them in a great position for promotion. On arrival, the pitch was still extremely wet following the midweek downpours, but both captains agreed to play a full game.

Winning the toss, Ashford decided to bowl and, as expected, the ball flew all over the place early on. Alex Watson, as has been his luck this year, had a couple of chances dropped but both opening bats played well in the conditions. Understandably slow progress was made, with only 10 runs coming off the first 8 overs. Ben Ealham and Julian Day came on as first change bowlers and Ealham soon took the wicket of Topliss who top edged a hook to Tegg. Day accounted for Cotton (22) and at 54 for 2 things were looking good for the Ants. Holmesdale's chief run scorer this year has been their Aussie, Chris Cann, and when Day had him dropped at first slip, it looked as though they had missed their chance to take him cheaply. Cann decided attack was the best form of defence on the damp track and played some expansive shots to move to 46 before he was deceived by leg spinner Buckham to be easily stumped. Day (3 for 54) and Buckham (3 for 43) took 3 wickets apiece as the Holmesdale middle order tried in vain to post a significant score but the Ants restricted Holmesdale to 185 for 9 off the 50 overs.

Liam Tegg and Stuart Paine opened the Ashford innings with the pitch still misbehaving as it dried out. Despite a couple of early scares, the pair looked in great form with both batsmen smashing anything loose as they rattled the score up to 76 before Paine fell for a bright 22. Tegg was playing the innings of his life and was really getting under the skin of the Holmesdale fielders as he started to take the game away from the home side. Timing the ball superbly, he struck a couple of imperious straight sixes to race past fifty. Shanon Fattore (12) smashed a couple of fours but it was all about Tegg now as he accelerated through the gears. The pitch was still no better, but Tegg simply ignored any misbehaving deliveries and put away anything slightly loose to reach a magnificent maiden first team Kent League century. Some of his crunching drives and pulls were out of the top drawer, and Holmesdale tried everything to unsettle him. Young Harry Gaplin was brought into the attack and gave Holmesdale a glimmer of hope as he bowled a great line and length to take 3 for 7, including the wicket of Tegg for 119 but the game was safe by then. Ed Spencer and Ben Ealham saw the Ants home in the 42nd over to take the 16 points.

Ashford skipper, Julian Day, said of Tegg's century: " I've seen some fantastic Kent League innings from players such as Laurie Potter, Mark Ealham, Nigel Llong and James Creed, but given the conditions and the context of the game, Liam's knock was up there with the best I've seen".

With Downham taking 20 points off lowly BOCA, The Ants now need 5 points from their last game (against Downham) to be assured of promotion. A victory would see the Town side crowned as Champions. Simon Taylor returns to the side who should be at full strength for this important game.

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Holmesdale 185-9 (50 overs) (C.Buckham 3-43, J.Day 3-54, N.Campbell 1-19)

Ashford 188-5 (41.3 overs) (L.Tegg 119, S.Paine 22, S.Fattore 12)

Won by 5 wkts

Match report not available.

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Match abandoned

A sunny day greeted the teams but the pitch and ground were damp. Ashford won the toss and elected to bat with a good line up of experience and youth. The game was reduced to 40 overs due to a mix-up with start times through the League.

A good opening partnership of 56 between A Harcourt and B Bradley with both keeping the scoreboard ticking over. A change of bowler and A Harcourt dispatched the bowler for 3 fours in his first over. B Bradley gave good support on a slow outfield where boundaries were few and far between to start with until he was lbw.

L Harcourt joined his Dad and proceeded to dispatch the bowlers to all parts of the ground with 2 fours to start with and also 4 sixes in his innings.

A Harcourt was bowled for 39 and a steady partnership between new boy R Nash kept the run rate up at 4 an over. A couple of quick wickets brought D Laker to the crease and L Harcourt continued with his attack of the bowlers until being caught on the boundary for 67 with a couple of overs to go. L Harcourt was dropped 3 times but he rode his lucked and continued to punish the bowlers and fielders for these drops.
A quickfire 14 from D Laker brought the score to 179.

A Harcourt opened the bowling and the opening partnership could not score off the bowling with A Harcourt going for 4 runs in his first 3 overs and then a wicket, clean bowling the opener.
L Harcourt ended wicketless but bowled well and with a change of bowler, M Nash continued restricting Betts batsmen to 2 runs an over and the rate creeping up every over.
M Nash finishing with 1-17.
M Nor on his return to the 3rds bowled a great line and length and the Betts batsmen struggled and picked up 3 wickets.
M Franklin also bowled and had a good spell and picked up a deserved wicket and it was left to A Harcourt who bowled a good line and length to finish the Betts innings off with a 2 wicket burst in his 9 over to win the game.

A good all round performance from A Harcourt and a great bowling performance from all the other bowlers.
A good game and every one was involved and fielded well and kept their concentration.

Ashford 179-7 (40 overs) (L Harcourt 67, A Harcourt 39, D Laker 14*)

Betteshanger 91 all out (32 overs) (A Harcourt 9-13-4, M Nor 7-2-14-3, M Nash 6-2-17-1)

Won By 88 Runs

Ashford took on old rivals Old Stacians in a very enjoyable game which provided some great individual performances an exciting finish and was played in an excellent spirit.

Ashford batted first but some tight bowling by Luca Sardo and Dan Storey restricted Ashford well with Storey capturing the valuable wicket of Darran Wood. Neil Tegg then joined Australian James Anthony and these two patiently put together an excellent partnership with Anthony driving and cutting well before being stumped for 88, his highest score of the season. Tegg was also in fine form and looked set for a century before unluckily playing on for 96 - his highest score for Ashford. Wickets then fell in quick succession with Darran Cooper grabbing a ha-ttrick for Stacians before Ashford declared on 210-7.

Stacians got off to a solid start through Luke Reeves and Ben Clark before Clark was bowled by Simon Taylor for 25. A couple of run outs then put Stacians in trouble but Luke Reeves continued to build his innings superbly and despite Ashford skipper Liam Tegg switching his bowlers around Reeves could not be moved. With good support from Dan Coulson (20) and Kevin Hall (23) Stacians moved closer to their target, but with youngsters Joe Jolly and David Foad bowling particularly well for Ashford, victory was still not a formality. However youngster Reeves continued to time the ball well and victory was achieved by 3 wickets with a couple of overs to go with Reeves unbeaten on a superb 115.

Ashford 210-7 decl. (N.Tegg 96, J.Anthony 88)

Old Stacians 211-7 (No bowling stats available)

Lost by 3 wkts

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